тнє ѕтαя яσѕє
by FyreMyst
Summary: Tempestpaw was always told that he'd be the next leader, the one to find the Star Rose. Instead, it was Willowpaw that pulled the Rose, destined to lead while he took on the role of a Night Stalker: a group of warriors who protected MapleClan at night. However, he soon discovers that this role is far more important than he could ever imagine, both to MapleClan and the world.
1. Intro

Yo. Well this is awkward. I haven't really been around in the fanfiction scene in a while. The last time I really updated anything was way back in the dusty days of 2017. But that's okay, because I've been having the itch to casually write something and this short perfectly fits in that niche. I mean I call it a short, but right now there's over 20 parts planned until the climax so probably won't end up overly short. eh. good stories can't be constrained by mere word counts.

.

Tempestpaw was told since birth that he would be MapleClan's next leader. Instead, he was given the role of Night Stalker: warriors that patrol the territory after the sun sets and the world is plunged into darkness. He soon learns that his job is not at all what he imagined, and while he does protect MapleClan in the hours of darkness, there are far worse foes than mere foxes and rogues. Tempestpaw, along with his sister, Willowpaw, must train to take part in a secret war that has been terrorizing MapleClan for generations. A war in which the enemies are not even from this world, but a parallel universe that threatens to collide with Earth ending all life in both worlds. The only way to stop all this is to unite the pieces of the shattered soul-of-souls, the Star Rose. But with plots unfolding on both Earth and the parallel universe Siva, their only hope is to finish the job their Clan had started hundreds of years before: mend the Star Rose and save the world.

.

MapleClan had always been a bit. . . different. Instead of adhering to a Clan's normal structure, MapleClan divides their roles. An apprentice specializes in one of these roles when they go into the caverns a few moons into their apprenticeship and find their Soulstone -their heart of hearts and reflection of themselves. Not only do the Soulstones decide which role the apprentice will train in, but a warrior's Soulstone is connected to their very being. Being separated from one's Soulstone quickly leads down the path to madness. Of course, a warrior's path in life is not entirely decided on what stone they pull from the caves. Some decide to take upon a different role or specialize in two. However, this is a very difficult path to take and not one that is ever recommended should they wish for any sort of happiness or success. The stones and their roles are as follows:

Agate: red; warrior

Jade: green; hunter

Onyx: black; night stalker

Star Rose: pink-clear; Sun (leader)

Tiger Eye: orange-black; stone reader

Quartz: clear; healer

Amethyst: purple; Runner

.

MapleClan Allegiances and Characters

(kinda spoilers for the first 'chapter' so if you want it to be a surprise read these after)

Mallowsun - Small calico she-cat with hazel eyes. Slim, but strategic. Old fashioned in a way, and rigid, but a good leader. (Sun; Willowpaw's mentor)

Willowpaw - Light grey tabby she-cat with blue eyes. Graceful and diplomatic. Tries to think with her mind but her heart often interferes. (Sun app. Tempestpaw's sister)

Lioncloud - light brown tom with yellow eyes. Loud and optimistic. (Healer; Cirrus's bro)

Cricketfrost - Small black she-cat with blue eyes. Snappy. Getting old. (Healer)

Rosepaw - White she-cat with ginger patches and green eyes. Quiet, but good at understanding other's emotions. (Healer App.)

Cirrusblaze - white tom with grey patches and green eyes. Sarcastic but analytical and with a great mind. (Runner; Lion's bro)

Mintsplash - light grey she-cat with green eyes. Bubbly and hyper, but lapses into quiet phases under stress. (Stone Reader; Lakepaw's mentor)

Lakepaw - Dark grey tom with amber eyes. Shy and easy to forget. Plump and not athletic in the slightest, but with a good memory. (Reader app; Stone/Spark's bro)

Warriors

Pineshard - Brown smoke tom with blue eyes. Orderly, but selfish. prone to anxiety.

Stormfeather - grey tabby tom with yellow eyes. Lighthearted and a prankster. (Lake/Stone/Spark father)

Scarletfang - dark ginger she-cat with blue eyes. Distant, can be rude, but usually just has her mind on other things. (Tempest/Willow mother)

Adderthorn - Dark brown tom with blue eyes. Cunning and sarcastic, but extremely fast and efficient. Is both a Warrior and a Hunter (Stonepaw's mentor)

Stonepaw - black and grey tabby tom with amber eyes. Values honor and doing what's right, but can be naive. (Lake/Spark's bro)

Jaypool - Massive dark grey tabby tom with blue eyes. Not very friendly, rather forceful.

Ottertuft - Russet she-cat with yellow eyes. Playful as her namesake.

Heatherstorm - tan she-cat with hazel eyes. Inquisitive and protective of friends.

Hunters

Snowhare - White she-cat with wide green eyes. Has a big heart and is enthusiastic about her duties.

Sandpetal - brown tabby she-cat with green eyes. Strict, but unimposing and often made fun of. Short tempered. Squeaky voice.

Jaggedwing - Silver tabby tom with black paws and yellow eyes. Kind and easygoing. (Sparkpaw's mentor)

Sparkpaw - Dark ginger she-cat with grey eyes. Upbeat and passionate. Most likely to get into a scuffle. (Lake/Stone's Sis)

Yewmoon - Black she-cat with yellow eyes. Somewhat absentminded. Mercurial.

Juniperspark - Grey and silver tabby she-cat with orange eyes. Swift and most likely to take leadership roles.

Hareflight - tan tom with wide green eyes. Quick but cowardly. Relies on the strength of others.

Night Stalkers

Batfrost - dark brown she-cat with green eyes. Will usually do what she's told, but with a shrug. Taciturn. Rumored to be mute. Lives outside camp.

Ghostflight - black tom with white paws and yellow eyes. Large and gruff, often humorless, but a good friend. (Tempestpaw's mentor)

Tempestpaw - Grey tabby tom with dark blue eyes. Confident, popular, just above average at everything. (Willow's Bro)

Icepool - Black she-cat with white flecks and green eyes. Kind. Determined. (Lake/Stone/Spark mother)

Thorncrest - brown dappled she-cat with long fur and golden eyes. Graceful and open-minded. Expecting kits. (Warrior)

Iceblossom - white and grey she-cat with orange eyes. Polite, but not afraid to step up. (Nursery Queen)

Ivytuft - Dark brown tom with white spots and grey eyes. Plenty of humor. (Elder, ex-Hunter)

Yellow Eyes - Mangey white and grey she-cat with blind yellow eyes. Snappish and always getting underpaw. (Ex-rogue; "Friend" of Oliver; Elder)

Oliver - Russet tom with green eyes and black paws. Kind and has lots of patience. (Ex-rogue; friend of Yellow Eyes; elder)

Redtalon - Tan tom with russet paws and a black tail. Lost a hind leg and twisted the remaining to a monster. Determined and optimistic. (Camp Aide)

Siva Cats:

Glimmer(Illivus) - Silver tabby she-cat with (usually) green eyes. Always smiling, passionate.

Shadow (Tevrus) - Dark brown tom with amber eyes. Quiet as his namesake.

Breeze (Iqval) - Grey-and-white patched tom with yellow eyes. Quick footed and quick witted.

Leaf (Pallus) - Calico she-cat with blue eyes. Easily amused, finds wonder in the smallest of things.

Ruby (Eqviir) - Dark ginger she-cat with blue eyes. Pretty and knows it.

Ivy (Parv) - Light grey tom with orange tabby patches and black eyes. Easygoing. Relaxed.

Holly (Drav) - black she-cat with amber eyes. Hard to get to know, but loyal and strict.

Others:

Lucy - Long-furred calico she-cat with yellow eyes. Worried, seeks protection.

Dynamo - tall silver tabby tom

Pepper - ginger torbie she-cat with heavy white spotting and orange/green eyes

Karma (Kit) - Black she-cat, friend of Pepper's

Stella - lilac tabby point with light blue eyes.

King - Massive white tom with black paws and yellow eyes.

Allie - grey she-cat with darker tabby dapples.

Steph - Stringy black tom with huge golden eyes

Lazarus - white tom with green eyes


	2. I Onyx

I went in confident.

After all, the Sun had told me I was to be the chosen one.

"And there you are," a gruff voice said with a tug of the cloth around my eyes. I could feel the pride in Ghostflight's voice. He knew I was the chosen one too.

The one that was to succeed Mallowsun after her death. I lifted my chin with a grin, not minding that my peers were blindfolded as I, and could not see it.

"You ready, Sparkpaw?"

"Of course! Rosepaw, you nervous?" Sparkpaw's voice held the hint of a tease and I imaged the russet-furred she-cat bumping her shoulder against Willowpaw's leg, not quite tall enough to push the long-legged she-cat around.

"She would never be nervous!" There was Stonepaw, defending his crush as always.

"Says you, moon-eyes." I heard movement to my left. Sparkpaw and Stonepaw's scents rolled into one.

Then there was a whoosh. I stood still, not wanting to be caught in the middle of them all. "That's enough of that!" I coughed back a giggle at Sandpetal's attempt to sound reprimanding. The she-cat's voice was always squeaky, but now she sounded like a strangled mouse.

"Shoo! Now be in there and get it over with." I felt a nose prodding my side and let Ghostflight guide me to the crack in the large boulder, a tunnel I knew travelled deep into the earth. I thanked him with a flick of my tail before feeling stone beneath my paws. Willowpaw's scent followed me close behind, and I imagined the line of apprentices: oldest to youngest.

Except for me. Even when Willowpaw was the firstborn of our litter, I lead the way.

I was the leader. I was the one.

"Do you think Tempestpaw is nervous?"

"Why would he be? He's not the one bringing a chunk of rock out of here." The whispers were certainly not meant for my ears, but the echoes brought them there anyways. My breathing tightened as again I rethought my fate.

My paws shoved me on, faster and faster down the slope. Something tugged in my chest. It pulled me deeper. Claws snagged my heart, threw me towards my destination.

The air opened, my fur no longer brushing the sides of the cavern. Pawsteps echoed around me as the apprentices raced to their own destinations.

I veered left, a rough keening setting my ears ringing. I itched to remove the blind over my eyes, itched to see what my other senses screamed of.

My paws flew over stone, closer to my goal. The ringing grew more persistent, a bee trying to buzz clear through my skull.

Then I stopped. Took a few steps back and turned. Without thinking, I gripped a stone firmly between my jaws, lifting it free from the ones tumbled haphazardly around it. The others clattered to the ground, sparking me out of my daze.

This stone, it was mine.

It was the Star Rose, the sparkling pink gem that was the sole property of a leader, of that I was sure.

They told me it would be, Mallowsun showed me hers and explained how I, too, would pull a Rose from the rubble.

I straightened my head, following my scent back out of the cave. My heart fluttered with impatience as I dashed to the surface, eager to see what my Rose looked like and how it compared to Mallowsun's. Would it be bigger? Does that mean I'd be stronger? A better leader?

I felt traces of air flutter over my ears, and puffed out my chest as I strutted out of the cavern. I kept the stone firm beneath my jaws, my lips pulled to conceal the Rose within.

A purr greeted me just before I felt the blind fall away and color flooded my vision. "Congratulations, Tempestpaw. You're the last one out."

"Okay, MapleClan apprentices! Keep those stones a second yet, you'll be free to speak in a few." Mintsplash purred with a smile, the energetic grey Stone Reader attracting every cat's attention. Her voice seemed to draw in eyes, her influence expanding to fill an entire area. "Now you all know what the significance of your Soulstone means. For generations in MapleClan apprentices are sent to find their Soul Stone in the Wandering Caves. Their stone calls to them, a reflection of their true and inner selves, even if they don't know it yet.

"Now all you line up by age! Youngest go first." Mintsplash trilled and jumped over to Stonepaw, her excited paws shifting for purchase on the leaves. The small grey tom looked nervous, and his eyes flicked over to Snowhare as he hesitated. But Mintsplash was not to be denied and he soon dropped his stone to his paws.

I craned my neck, trying to glimpse the flash of what stone he had gotten, but it was concealed by an upturned maple leaf. Mintsplash bent to examine the stone, then nodded with a wide smile. "Agate!" she announced. Snowhare gave a yowl, bounding over to her apprentice and touching her muzzle to his ear. "Agate is for the warrior, one to protect the Clan and those within."

"Now you, honey," Mintsplash mewed, leaving Stonepaw to Snowhare. Lakepaw was a quiet cat, one that I often failed to notice. He dropped his stone and I watched the sunset rock fall to the leaves with a hiss. "Stone Reader," Mintsplash said, her voice soft. "Tiger eye." I stood my paws straighter. Tiger eye was very rare, but the Star Rose was nearer a myth than a stone that could be pulled by any apprentice.

Sparkpaw dropped her stone, landing with a clang as it hit some other hard surface. Mintsplash flinched, turning from where she had been staring listlessly at Lakepaw to Sparkpaw. It took the grey she-cat a moment to cast off whatever had hooked her and see the stone she was looking at. "Jade!" she yowled the word, as if to prove she was as upbeat as always. "Jade is the stone of a huntress, quick on her paws and silent as the night."

Sparkpaw flicked her ear, as if the announcement was only what she was expecting, although sitting beside her I could feel the waves of relief flooding her fur. A hunter was useful, respected.

And then Mintsplash padded up to me. I rolled the Star Rose with my tongue, savoring the feeling that this stone was, in essence, me and all I stood for. I bent my head and let it free.

A shadow tumbled from my mouth, sparking ebony as it clattered to the leaves. No. NO! Ghostflight gasped across from me, the dark fur on his shoulders and hackles lifting. The others looked worried. "Onyx, for the Night Stalker. . ." Mintsplash trailed off, as if she were unsure that she should still announce my stone.

"There must be some mistake! I must've picked the wrong stone out of the pile." But even then I knew that was a lie. I felt the stone moving within me, felt how right it was sitting there in my possession. This was my stone. But it wasn't a Rose.

"The stones don't lie, Tempestpaw. It is surprising, but-" Mintsplash started, a little of her confidence back, but still shaken. We had all expected the pink of a Rose.

"It's still here. The Star Rose." I snapped my head to the whisper, watching as Lakepaw slowly got to his paws, his eyes trained on Willowpaw. She blinked, opening her jaws as the shard of pink sparked in the bright sunlight to lay glittering on the forest floor.

Willowpaw was to be the next leader.

And I was not.


	3. II Truth

"Tempestpaw?" I buried my muzzle under a paw, turning my ears away from my sister's voice. I heard the hesitation, the pity in her mew; she probably thought I was moping.

I probably was.

I hid my eyes away. I couldn't bear seeing her. I knew that if I just so much as glimpsed her eyes, her blue, blue eyes so alike yet so different to mine. . . all the pain, all the misery would come out. But I wasn't scared of that. No, what kept my eyes away was the love I held for her. Because there was anger buried there, and that would all come out too.

I didn't want to hurt her. I didn't want that. So why did my pelt flush with rage and jealousy whenever I thought of her name? Willowpaw. . .

My paws curled, concealing the ivory claws hidden under the grey tufted fur. She called my name again. Quieter. Desperate.

But I couldn't. I couldn't hurt her, I couldn't look, I couldn't-

And then she was gone.

I scrambled to my paws, breath heaving. I hated it. I hated myself. I didn't hate her, so why did it feel like it?

"Tempestpaw?" I flinched, but this voice was a far cry from my sister's. I turned to the entrance of the cave, squinting before remembering that the dawn's rays wouldn't be greeting me anymore. "Ready for your first day?" I shrugged and mumbled something that could have been an agreement if the listener was being generous. Unfortunately, 'generous' was not a word often used to describe Ghostflight. The black tom stepped into the mouth of the cave narrowed his eyes, forcing my own gaze down to the sandy cave floor. "I saw Willowpaw. She's not the problem, and you know it." The stone didn't give way under my claws. "It's been five days. You're going to have to learn to deal with it. You can't avoid her forever, Tempestpaw."

"I sure as hell can try," I muttered.

"What was that?"

I ground my teeth together. "Nothing."

"Good. Now let's go. We only have a bit of light left and you still haven't learned how to see without your eyes."

So that was how today -tonight, I corrected myself angrily- was going to go. More cryptic sayings that contradicted themselves and left me blindly running into thorn bushes. Just the thought of it sent my flanks itching as I remembered the pains of that first night. I raised my head, saw that Ghostflight was almost out of camp, and darted forward with a curse.

It wasn't quite dusk yet, and so catching up to the dark tom among the trees was fairly simple. He didn't wait for me, nor did he intentionally try and outpace me. He was only going along on his way, the same path he'd taken every night since his naming ceremony. I was just along for the ride, for better or for worse. Usually for neither.

Icepool was already in the clearing, spread out under one of the few patches of golden sun, her tail twitching. "Batfrost?" Ghostflight said as we arrived. Icepool just sat up and shrugged before starting to clean the leaves and dust off her fur. I had only seen Batfrost twice. The first time at my apprentice ceremony, and the second when I had been initiated as a Night Stalker. As far as I had gathered, Batfrost kept to herself most of the time, only interacting with the Clan when she had to. Apparently, she was also very good at her job, and commandeered over double the territory Ghostflight or Icepool patrolled, possibly even more than the two combined.

Seeing as I couldn't get through half of Ghostflight's portion, I couldn't even fathom how she managed it.

Ghostflight placed himself beside the roots of an oak tree, staring off into nothingness. Icepool looked my way and gave a slight smile before she too disappeared under the arching fern fronds. I looked around with a sigh, quickly coming to the conclusion that there was nothing nearby to busy myself with, and trying to talk to Ghostflight when he was in one of his quiet moments was too much work to be worth it. So I found myself a place where the setting sun wouldn't shine too brightly in my eyes and settled down to wait for Cirrusblaze.

Ghostflight liked to get out of camp early, and so there was plenty of waiting to do. I won't bore you with the details- or lack thereof as it was. Instead, I'll try and explain the role of the Night Stalkers, as I've been told it's not something other Clans do, and going into the rest of the tale will be pretty confusing if you don't already know the basics of our job.

So here's for a little history lesson. At the beginning, MapleClan was basically like all the other Clans (or so I've been told, I've never seen a 'normal' Clan myself, but I'm going to assume what they've told me is true). We had a leader, a deputy, medicine cats, and warriors. Then Heatherstar became leader. She was a great leader at first. Every cat in the Clan knew she would become leader since she was young, and she was all that they had hoped for. But then she began to change. She would retreat to her den before the sun set, and wouldn't come out until after the sun was high in the sky. Sometimes, in summer storms where the sun was clouded over, she wouldn't leave her den for days or weeks at a time. Heatherstar would tell the cats that they should do the same, and that the darkness could only be dispelled by the sun and the Star. The Star: singular, capitalized.

She told them to call her Heathersun, that the word star should only be used in reference to the Star, and no other. The Star she was referencing wasn't a real star, but rather a stone. The Star Rose, or a piece of it, really. Heatherstar had found it exploring the deepest caverns under MapleClan territory, and soon became obsessed with it's beauty. The other cats didn't understand it at the time, but now we know why she had acted this way: Heatherstar was both a Sun -a leader- and the first Stone Reader. She could feel the ties to the soul stones as strongly as a Stone Reader could, yet she pulled a Star Rose instead. Without the Tiger's Eye to ground her in reality and dilute her powers, the strength of the Star Rose and her constant exposure to it slowly drove her mad.

She was so obsessed with the stone, she asked her sister, Thistlebreeze, to find her more shards of the Rose. Yet even when directed to the same place as Heatherstar had been, Thistlebreeze had only thoughts for another stone: jade. This is when our ways with the soul stones really begun, with Heatherstar finding the cavern where the stones were hidden. Heatherstar sent cat after cat looking for the Star Rose, but every time they would come out with one of the other stones. Onyx. Jade. Agate. Amethyst. The cats of MapleClan had their soul stones, but as of yet none had pulled a Tiger's Eye and so they did not understand what the soul stones meant. However, Heatherstar did not give up so easily on her obsession with the Star Rose. If she had, the soul stones would have been lost along with Heatherstar's mind. Heatherstar started to kidnap cats from outside the Clan, forcing them to go down into the caves in search of the Star Rose. The first few cats only drew normal stones, some meaningless pebbles, others the traditional three stones. And then one little she-cat named Talia drew the Tiger's Eye, became the first Stone Reader, and told our Clan what their stones really meant: Jade for the hunters who provided for the Clan; Agate for the warriors who fought and protected; Amethyst for the runners, who rarely ran, but organized and planned; Tiger's Eye for the Stone Readers, who told us the sicknesses of our hearts; Quartz for the medicine cats, who healed sicknesses and wounds; Star Rose, Diamond, for the Suns, the leaders; and Onyx for the Night Stalkers, who defended the Clan from the darkness and evil that lurked while they slept.

And that's for the longer than probably necessary history lesson, but-

"Took you long enough, Cirrusblaze," Ghostflight rumbled. I jumped, having not noticed the slim tom enter the clearing. It had gotten significantly darker since I had settled down, but there was enough light to bounce off the amethyst strung around Cirrusblaze's neck, scattering little lights along the forest floor when he moved.

I stood with a yawn, stretching my legs and trying to shake the sleep out of my paws. I wasn't used to sleeping during the day yet, and the dusk still made me drowsy even if Ghostflight didn't let me stay that way for long with all our running about. "So," Icepool prompted when the white-and-grey tom didn't speak.

Cirrusblaze pointedly licked down a stray tuft of fur on his chest, forcing us to wait a few more seconds in silence. Icepool sat, caught my attention and rolled her eyes. I had to choke back a laugh.

"Yewmoon and her patrol caught significantly less prey around the birch grove than would be expected at this time of year two days ago. Yesterday, the prey was normal, but Lioncloud mentioned that the forest seemed quiet around the same area. Naturally, I went out to investigate myself, and deduced that there is a great possibility a fox has been staying somewhere around the northwestern border, just beside the lake."

That was part of Ghostflight's route. My route. I nodded, reminding myself to keep an eye -and an ear, nose, and thought- out when we went around the area. "The day of the new moon is three days from now as well," Cirrusblaze added, "It would be prudent to start assessing the meeting place now. However, the clearing is-"

"Batfrost's sector," Icepool interrupted, "I know. I'll get word to her."

Cirrusblaze opened his mouth as if he wanted to argue, but then thought better of it, pointed his muzzle to the air and stalked back off the way he came. Icepool tactfully waited until he was out of earshot before laughing. "Sorry. I can't. Take him seriously. Anymore."

Ghostflight grunted in agreement, getting to his paws. "At least he takes his job seriously. Tempestpaw, it's time." I stood with a stretch, the weight of the onyx bouncing off my chest already comfortable, and followed Ghostflight into the trees. Before I knew it the little sunlight had fled and shadows ruled the world.

I really didn't even explain what we did as Night Stalkers. Honest, I meant to, but I couldn't do that without telling you all about the origins of MapleClan and why the Night Stalkers were needed anyways, and it all went downhill from there. Sorry. Guess it wasn't really a waste of time, but I didn't mean to take you off on so far a tangent. I can summarize it here in a few words anyways, so no harm done, I suppose.

Night Stalkers have a similar role to the warriors, only at night. At first, having patrols watch during the night wasn't necessary, but after being attacked several times -most of the raids being from a group of rival rogues; we're chill now but I'm not going on yet another tangential storyline, not yet anyhow- the leader. . . I don't remember who now. Maybe Blizzardsun. Probably. Decided patrols should also be sent out at night to protect the borders from rogues and other threats that we could totally miss in the other half of the day.

This idea, however, proved to be almost more trouble than it was worth. The cats for that 'midnight patrol' also needed two other days off -the day of the patrol and the day after, to catch up on sleep- so the warrior force was crippled by almost a quarter every day. Secondly, with cats who weren't used to staying up the whole night, sometimes for nights in a row, it was like sending them off asleep. Half the time, they weren't awake enough to do any good. And they weren't trained to travel and fight in the darkness (like we are now) so most of the injuries brought back from the midnight patrol weren't from fighting rogues and foxes, but from stumbling into rabbit holes and thorn bushes.

It took only a few moons of doing it that way before some cat got it into their head to train a special task unit just for the purpose. The Night Stalkers. At first, there had to have been at least six warriors, probably two groups of three, doing the patrols. But now the Night Stalkers have become so skilled at what they do, MapleClan has only three. Four, if you count me, which I don't. Ghostflight says my training will take much longer than any other, except maybe Willowpaw's. I have to learn to take on a quarter of the territory, and any dangers that I find there, by myself. He says he won't come saving my tail once I'm a Night Stalker in full, since he still has all _his _quarter to do and nevermind my own incompetence.

I'm only half certain he's kidding.

"Tempestpaw I'm not slowing down for you. The moon is high in the sky and we haven't even gotten a third of half my normal sector done." I jumped ahead, only barely missing being slapped in the face by a fern. That's another thing Ghostflight loves to complain about: that I'm so bad we can only get through half of his normal run, and even that just barely. Icepool and Batfrost had split his other half between them. I still couldn't figure out if it was the extra work he was asking them to do that bothered him, or if he just hated going this slow.

I didn't really want to ask him which it was, and I guessed it was probably a lot of both. "Coming as fast as I can," I called to him, slightly irritated. Ghostflight, despite his arguments, waited for me to find my way across a fallen tree. I came to his side, panting with the effort, and could barely resist sitting for a break. I tried that the first day, and after struggling to find my way to camp in the darkness by myself, I realized that breaks weren't a part of the job description.

I readied myself to push on, but to my great surprise Ghostflight didn't immediately start forward again. _Good enough for me, _I thought, allowing myself a few extra breaths of the cool night air. I even had time to shake out my paws. And get the fern that was stuck behind my ear. . .

I sat still.

Something was wrong.

A few more seconds passed. Ghostflight didn't move. Then I was pushed under the bushes with orders to stay down and stay quiet before I even had the chance to blink.

It took me a few moments for me to catch up to what had happened, and a few more to muster the courage to poke my muzzle free from the branches to peek at what was going on.

My eyes were locked. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe.

The darkness suddenly flashed into light and a sound I couldn't even hope to describe ripped through the night. I could see, but at that moment I didn't want to. I wish I could have closed my eyes, but I couldn't. I didn't have control of anything right then, fear rooting me to the ground tighter than any bond.

What I saw could only be described as a monster. It was dark -not a dark color, just darkness itself- roughly circular. It dripped darkness, and I could only see it as a shadow in the bright light.

The light. Ghostflight stood illuminated, silver lines burned onto his pelt in shifting ribbons that refused to sit still in my gaze. His paws dripped light, and though it was silver and liquid, it reminded me of fire. The onyx that had been strung around his neck was gone, instead a large silver circle blazed on his chest. The light cast odd shadows, odd highlights. Ghostflight wasn't Ghostflight.

I couldn't tell if the two had actually stopped, or if time really had frozen at that moment, but it all came crashing down with another one of the creature's roars, sending the whole scene spinning back into movement.

Ghostflight leapt forward faster than I could see, his passage only a blur of light. I could see the glint of fangs in the mass of shadows when Ghostflight came closer to it, but even when he was on top of it the light couldn't banish the darkness surrounding it.

Shadows flew as Ghostflight connected. I heard a sound similar to the pattering of rain on leaves, and saw shadowed congealed like goo dripping from the leaves in front of me. A drop fell on my muzzle, and the pain shocked me out of my trance. I yelped.

Then I froze. The creature didn't have eyes, but that didn't stop its stare. It was then that I could feel the full extent of its darkness, its malice, pushing down on me, squeezing the air from my lungs, the blood from my paws. My vision started to blur at the edges, dark spots blocking Ghostflight's light.

Then the light was closer. I had to close my eyes as Ghostflight appeared in front of me, blocking the monster's gaze. He shoved me down with a paw, burying my face into the cold earth.

I didn't look up. I couldn't hear or see. I only smelled the overpowering night earth and felt the pounding of my heart that told me I was still alive. Still alive.

The image of the beast, of Ghostflight, that image that had seared into my mind, suddenly flashed in the darkness.

I didn't understand. I couldn't comprehend it.

So I just passed out.

"Tempestpaw!" Ghostflight's gruff voice barely cut through the fuzziness around my head. It felt like I was stuck in a cloud, and it wasn't all so great as I thought it would be. I curled my paws into the dirt. Ghostflight growled and white pressed into my closed eyelids. I felt his paw touch my head and the white flew down my spine like a spark. I jumped, my fur on end.

And then my memories started to trickle back. The only reason I didn't crash back to the ground is because Ghostflight had caught me with a shoulder.

It wasn't real, it wasn't real. No.

But the light. I lifted my head -a task that took more effort than it should have- and watched as the burning lines, _patterns, _wound their way back to the silver circle on Ghostflight's dark chest. They met up, flashed, and disappeared. His onyx soul stone swung on its tether.

I opened my mouth. Closed it.

A spin of movement flickered back in the clearing, and my heart leapt in my chest as memories of the monster-

"Oh, StarClan, I saw the signal. Sorry, Batfrost and-" Icepool hesitated, stepping forward. Her eyes flicked between me and the thing sprawled out on the grass, then to Ghostflight who gave a small nod. "Glimmer. . . had some trouble. Two selkav. It was on your sector and-" she stopped again, sitting with a sigh. "Well the cat's out of the bag, might as well give him the whole story."

Ghostflight walked away and shrugged as if he was unphased by what had just happened. By the monster that had just attacked him. By the fact that he had just _freaking teleported. _He flicked a paw, sending black goo to splatter the bush beside him. I jumped to my paws at the rustle it made, my heart pounding out of my chest. "You can tell him."

"It really is your responsibility," Icepool started with narrowed eyes, but relented when Ghostflight failed to even look her direction, busying himself with cleaning his paws. "Just be glad I've always wanted to tell this story." The black she-cat twitched her tail, an invitation for me to come closer. I edged around the monster, keeping it in my sight as if it could jump back to life at any moment, even though I was pretty sure Ghostflight had killed it.

I was still trying to wrap my head around that.

"Come on, I won't bite," Icepool mewed, flicking an ear to a patch of leaves under a maple tree beside where she sat. I settled down with my paws tensed beneath me, too keyed up to relax. Not while that thing still lay there, a smudge of shadow against the darkness. "I know you've heard the stories of Heatherstar."

"Yeah."

"Well that's only half of what really happened. The other half," she waved her tail to where the monster lay, as if that was enough explanation. I guess it was. "Naturally, the other half isn't common knowledge, even within the Clan. You see, when Heatherstar went down into the tunnels the first time, the Star wasn't the only thing she found. Down there was the first stable portal to Siva- the Otherland. We now believe that Heatherstar saw a trumval- a cousin of this okmae here, much like a fox is a cousin to a coyote- and that is why she was so frightened of the dark. She had confused the darkness of the caves to the evil of Siva, and brought that fear back with her.

"But fear wasn't the only thing that followed her back to the Clan. We also believe that the cats of the Siva -Svans- followed the trumval onto our plane to kill it, and that a select few of them were sent to. . . clean up after Heatherstar ran away in the confusion."

"Wipe her memory," Ghostflight clarified.

Icepool nodded. "At this point, the Svans were good at cleaning up after the monsters that had made it to earth. They didn't want to let all their efforts go to waste because one crazy she-cat started blabbing about some creature in the darkness made of smoke and goo, so they simply removed the beast from her memory. The terrifying monster she had seen became nothing more than a shadow.

"However, more and more of these monsters started appearing on Earth. The Svans managed to kill them before they did any real harm, but it was obvious that this had never happened before. The monsters usually only managed to break through at weak points- portals we call them- but now it seemed as if the entirety of MapleClan's territory was rippling with temporary and extremely volatile holes between the two worlds. For a while, the Svans began to question why suddenly there were so many breaches between the two worlds, and why here of all places. The only lead they had was Heatherstar, and it was then they found that she had a piece of the Star Rose.

"The Star was a diamond. A diamond imbued with energy that had been kept safely at the heart of Siva. The Star had been stolen from Siva, a plot from an unknown foe. To this day, we don't know who or what had pulled the strings behind that attack, but whatever plan it was had been foiled, for on the journey to earth the Star had shattered. Somewhere, deep in that cavern, is the place where the Svans fought, where Heatherstar had escaped with a single shard of the Star Rose, where the portal to Siva lay. Down there, where pieces of the Star Rose are still shattered. . ." Icepool trailed off, her eyes distant. She sighed, shook her head and started again.

"The pull of the Star weakens the boundaries between earth and Siva, specifically around this area. Here is where the two worlds are closest, and where the jump from one to the other is easiest, which is why monsters are sometimes able to cross over. The Star is like some sort of magnet, pulling back towards the core of Siva."

"Why don't they just take the Star back?"

Ghostflight shook his head and paced beside the monster. It took me a while to pull my eyes from it.

"It's not that simple," Icepool explained, "not just anyone can touch the Star. It takes a strong soul to be close to that much energy, even in just a single shard of it. And for Svans who have that much energy already coursing through their bodies, natural to them as blood, they can't even get near it. It attracts them like a siren's song, but the energy inside them repels. Their cats have died from the stress of being too close to it."

"Which is why they need MapleClan to collect it for them," Ghostflight rumbled.

"Each MapleClan leader finds a new shard, another tiny piece of the puzzle. The Star is with them for life; it is their soul stone just as much as the onyx is ours, and without it they would surely die."

"But after a natural passing, the shard is sent on to Siva again. . ."

"Where they put it together, bit by bit," Icepool concluded.

"So the Night Stalkers. . . we're the cats that fight the monsters that cross over, and hide it from the rest of the Clan?"

Ghostflight nodded. "Basically. Until the Star is repaired and taken back to Siva, and the realms drift far enough apart that the creatures can't cross over anymore."

"Night Stalkers: those that keep the Clan safe from the darkness," Icepool said. Her fangs glistened in the moonlight.

I took a deep breath, but the air felt like all the weight of Siva itself was pressing down above it. And then I started to connect the dots. "So what are you going to do now, wipe my memory?" I felt the fur on the back of my neck rising.

Ghostflight walked over to me, and I had to fight the urge to run away. In the darkness, he wasn't my mentor or even a cat, he was. . . something else. I shut that thought out before it had time to develop, but it still lingered like the taste of bad prey. "If we have to. I don't want to. You have so much potential. I could sense that from the day Mallowsun showed you to me, before you even opened your eyes."

"Tempestpaw. Tempestpaw," Icepool poked my shoulder, and I thought that I was going to jump right to the moon. "Look, I know it's a lot to take in. It sure was for me. Let me take you back, Ghostflight can finish the rounds. You can get some sleep, think it over for a while. It gets easier." Icepool got to her paws, and before I even realized I had moved I was following with shaky footsteps. I realized that I was probably sticking too close to her side, but when I thought of moving even a whisker, the image of the monster -what had Icepool called it? An okmae? Oakmar?- jumping at me with bared fangs and terrifying eyes came to the forefront of my mind and forced me to press closer.

"It'll all be okay," I heard when Icepool's voice managed to break through the layers of fear, confusion and outright shock that had built up in my mind. "You'll figure it out, we all do. It just takes time. Just make sure not to talk to anyone but me or Ghostflight about it, okay?"

"Why? Why can't I tell them?" I said. My voice was quiet, hardly a whisper, but I didn't have the energy to be embarrassed.

"Because then Ghostflight would have to tamper with their memories, and that always makes him grumpy. Well, grumpier." Icepool's laugh echoed off the darkness, and I swore I could hear something laughing back.

I probably should have been surprised but at that point it was all I could do to keep my paws from tripping me in the darkness.

They said I'd get used to it, right?

One more step.


	4. III Spark

Sparkpaw's POV

Sparkpaw watched as Lakepaw followed Rosepaw back to the healer's cavern and could hardly resist laughing at the scene: Stonepaw was so much larger than the petite she-cat, but he still managed to look small as he walked in her shadow. Rosepaw couldn't see the moon-eyes he was throwing her direction, but everyone else in the camp could. "I don't know how he can live with himself, I'm almost embarrassed just watching him."

"Try being related to him," Sparkpaw replied with a snort. She waved her tail, inviting Willowpaw over into the patch of morning sun she had managed to snag for herself. "How'd it go?"

Willowpaw settled herself, silently pulling her long limbs together into a crouch. Sparkpaw glanced over to her, but Willowpaw's eyes were focused on something she couldn't see, something internal. Pain flickered across her face, there and gone, fast as heat lightning. "He'll come around, he always does."

"Yeah. He does." She didn't know what to say. Maybe Stonepaw was embarrassing, maybe Lakepaw was lost in his own mind more than in reality, but neither of her brothers would do what Tempestpaw was doing with Willowpaw. But then, neither of her brothers were anything like Tempestpaw. She tried to catch Willowpaw's eye, then looked up, simultaneously frustrated and flustered.

Sparkpaw knew she wasn't good at this emotional stuff. She just wished Willowpaw's problems were something I could bite, claw, attack. It would be so much easier. But Tempestpaw. . . her stomach flipped and she shook my head to rid it of clingy thoughts. "You know." Willowpaw brought her head up from her paws. "You could- I mean, it's not- maybe-"

She felt the prickle of eyes on her fur, and looked over her shoulder to see Jaggedwing standing a few paces back. He smiled apologetically. She felt guilty even as relief washed over her. Sparkpaw nudged Willowpaw's flank with a paw in what she hoped was a comforting way. "Sorry, I really should go." She paused. "He'll come around eventually," she added, but still felt it was inaquidate. She left Willowpaw to the space on the floor, now almost completely cast in shadow as the sun had moved. Tempestpaw had gotten back early last night, maybe she should confront him about it. He must know how much his rebuttal had hurt his sister.

She followed Jaggedwing to the far end of the camp, enjoying the soft warmth of the sun on her flank. In the summer, her thick, dark fur would make the heat almost unbearable, but after a chilly winter, the spring sun tickled, playful as a newborn kit. She thought they were heading out into the forest, but Jaggedwing only padded far enough away from the center of camp to be sure they wouldn't be overheard before sitting with a sigh. "It's Tempestpaw, isn't it?"

Sparkpaw nodded. Of course it was Tempestpaw. "I should have let you be with Willowpaw for a bit. You have camp duties today, by the way."

Usually that would have bothered her, but she couldn't feel the rush of energy she usually had. Maybe it was for the best. "I should thank you for giving me an excuse to get away. Not because I don't care -Willowpaw's my best friend, I hate to see her like that- but I probably would have said something and made it worse," she quickly explained, although she knew Jaggedwing understood. Jaggedwing was like that, he really could understand you, even if you didn't understand yourself yet. That's just the way he was.

"I think you would have done just fine, Sparkpaw. You just need to say what's on your mind, and your heart will come through." She doubted that, but she didn't say anything. She could never say anything right, that's just the way it was. "You can go see if Redtalon has anything for you to do. If not, I'm sure Lioncloud could use some help."

"Yeah but with my brother following Rosepaw around, it must feel like he has two apprentices," she said with a grin.

"All the more reason he could use your help," Jaggedwing replied. Her grin widened and sje leapt off to the elder's den feeling a lot more like herself. Enough so that she decided to run a quick lap around camp. It was more a semi-circle, however; the thickly woven brambles enclosed a rough half-moon space around camp and the cliffside formed the flat base. It was breathtaking in the clear spring sun, and Sparkpaw couldn't help but feel her spirits lift as she watched it.

The cliff was the Clan's protector, in all it's pale white glory, sparkling just so. Caves protected the Clan from the cold and rain, and in a pinch the whole Clan could disappear into the tunnels above. There, two or three cats could defend against an army that wanted to harm the cats within. Only those with the knowledge of the little shadowed ledges would have a chance at making it up, and even then they could easily be pushed off if they tried to make it into the tunnels.

Sparkpaw took a deep breath as she felt the ground fly below her paws. The air was crisp, fresh, and tasted like her Clan. Her Clan. She made it to the other wall and turned around, trotting back to the entrance. The weight on her chest lifted, and she was able to smile as she padded through the winding tunnel to the elder's cave: up a small bump then down a gradual incline until it widened out into a small, comfortable open space.

She looked around. The cave wasn't large at all, maybe twice the height of a tall cat. It was shaped like something between a square and a circle, with a bump off to the side that was filled with kneaded leaves and moss. Four little nests were arranged around the center. All of them were empty.

Sparkpaw turned to leave and just about collided with another cat. She scrambled back to let Redtalon limp his way in, squeaking half-formed apologies. "It's okay, really," Redtalon cut in when she paused for a breath. He backed himself into one of the nests, slowly lowering himself down onto his hindquarters first, then his chest. Sparkpaw knew she was staring, but couldn't help herself. "Don't worry, I'm used to that too." Redtalon smiled, and Sparkpaw jumped, surprised he could tell what she was thinking.

"You're on camp duty today, right?" She nodded. "I just need to change this wrap and then we can go see what needs to be done." Sparkpaw didn't notice the bundle of herbs until he had started unwrapping the wide rhubarb leaves to reveal the other leaves beneath. There were more than she could name, and she'd helped Rosepaw sort herbs a few times.

Sparkpaw sat with her head on her paws and watched Redtalon as he deftly mixed this herb with that and separated the rest into three little piles with the ease of routine.

It was hard to imagine that Redtalon was only a few seasons older than she was. And quite handsome. He had long tan fur that any she-cat would die for, bright green eyes, and his paws matched the red agate shard he wore. Well, three of his paws did. His fourth leg was missing, ending in a stump just after his hip. After being hit by a monster, Mallowsun decided the only way to save his life was to take him to humans.

His left hind leg had been crushed beyond anything even humans could do, but they managed to set and bind his right until the bones mended themselves. His paw was still twisted and caused him pain, but he could walk, more or less. After he escaped back to the Clan, he'd been sent to the elder's den, but refused to retire, instead calling himself the 'Camp Aide'. It was a laughable title until Mallowsun realized how much Redtalon was getting done. Warriors and Hunters didn't often have the free time to examine the walls or note which dens needed fixing, but Redtalon had nothing if not time.

"Ready?" Redtalon said as he finished licking herbs from his fur.

Sparkpaw stood, stretching the tightness from her legs -she needed to remember not to lay on stone right after running- and bounced a few times on her paws. "What needs to be done?"

"Gathering more moss for the elders, to start, since the leaves are from last fall and they need to be cleared out. We probably should do that now, before they get back. I don't want to deal with Yellow Eyes' grouchiness a second more than necessary."

"Sure!" Sparkpaw darted through the corridor and could hardly keep still waiting for Redtalon to join her. She just managed to keep with him as the crossed the clearing, quivering with untapped energy. Most of the pulses came from the sparkling jade fragment looped around her neck. As it was, she found it difficult to keep up with Redtalon's awkward, shambling gait from the white cliffs to the ring of brambles. But she managed it, just barely, only dashing off once they reached the outside of camp.

She swore she could hear Redtalon's laughter over the wind that whistled in her ears.

"I'm exhausted," Sparkpaw groaned, dropping gracelessly to the ground.

She felt a paw prod into her side, and she swatted halfheartedly at it. "You shouldn't do that, you'll get your fur all messy."

"Quit being bossy, Stonepaw, I'm still older than you."

"Only by two minutes," he muttered, but left her be.

Sparkpaw and both her brothers were in their own little hiding spot they had used as kits. Even as apprentices it was a bit squished -especially with Stonepaw taking up more than half the space- and she couldn't imagine they would fit when they were all fully grown. But even if it was tight, it was private, and they had come here every day just before dusk since any of them could remember. They weren't about to give up their tradition that easily.

Usually they would talk about their days. Words could be shared freely here, and Sparkpaw knew that whatever she said, nothing would ever leave the small cavern. It was a place of secrets, of trust, of kinship. She laughed with Lakepaw about Stonepaw's recent obsession with Rosepaw. She listened intently as Stonepaw shared news of the Meeting he had overheard from Juniperspark and Heatherstorm. She talked about her chores with Redtalon freely, complaining about Yellow Eyes' constant whining and Pineshard's perfectionism while she was trying to patch the camp wall.

But for the first time, she withheld something from her two brothers. She didn't mention her concern about Willowpaw and the conversation she had with her friend that morning. Lakepaw may have let her work it out on her own, but Stonepaw would be adamant on coming with her when she confronted Tempestpaw, as she now was determined to do, and she didn't want her brother's help on this. This was something she had to do on her own. She had an entire speech worked up, pieced together as she worked that day, and Stonepaw, even if he meant well, would just be in the way.

And she had to do this. For Willowpaw. She had to put something right. Sparkpaw was always the one who messed things up, always the one who said the wrong thing or jumped in before looking where her paws were going. For once, she wanted to do something right, and she had to do that alone.

She nodded along to Stonepaw's story, although she didn't hear one word in three. Thoughts of what she was going to say to Tempestpaw swirled in her head. Thoughts of Tempestpaw squashed out anything else. For Willowpaw, for my friend, she thought, determined.

The sun was almost down by the time Sparkpaw was able to escape from her brothers. It was just before the time Tempestpaw would leave for his Night Stalker training, and Sparkpaw hurried to the apprentices cavern; she wasn't sure what she was going to do if he had already left.

Tempestpaw was curled up in a nest farthest away from the opening, around a slight bend where even the harshest of noontime sun wouldn't penetrate the darkness and wake him from his daytime sleep. His fur blended into the shadows, and Sparkpaw could only see the lighter tabby stripes on his flank when he breathed.

She hesitated. Then she remembered how he treated Willowpaw -his own sister!- in the week since they pulled their stones. She recalled how disappointed Willowpaw had been that morning, too miserable to even carry on a conversation. Sparkpaw felt a snarl work its way onto her face, and she took the final few steps to Tempest Paw's nest. She brought her paw up and cuffed him heavily over the ear.

Tempestpaw woke with a start, scrabbling to his paws, his blue eyes flashing in the darkness. Sparkpaw didn't let him have an inch, and stepped forward to corner him in. All her planning about what she was going to say left in a rush, stomped out by her rage.

So she just got to the point. "Why are you hurting Willowpaw?"


	5. IV Recovery

Willowpaw, Willowpaw. . . I tried to think, but every time the images were enclosed with shadows. I narrowed my eyes. I could make out the shape of ears, and every once in awhile the flash of green eyes.

Did the monster have green eyes? I couldn't remember. The shadows stuck to the figure like goo, just like the monster's had. It didn't smell like the monster. Maybe it wasn't-

"Hello? Are you going to ignore me too?"

Sparkpaw. I couldn't mistake her voice anywhere. Suddenly the shadows flashed and I could see again. I could feel the stone rough against my spine, the moss twisted painfully around my claws. I could see Sparkpaw now -all of her- her ginger fur outlined in a sparkling white where the sun filtered through. Like a little fluffy angel. I smiled.

"Sparkpaw, is that you?" The voice was muffled, as if worlds away. I heard the shuffling of paws, more muted voices. But they didn't matter. I was safe, safe, safe, safe. Huh, that was a funny word. S - a - f - e - s - a -f -e.

A sharp smell wreathed its way into my nose. "Tempestpaw," the voice was masculine, pitched low. It cut through the letters and I lifted my head, confused. "Here, eat these. You'll feel better." I didn't understand that. I was safe, wasn't I? And that voice, that was Ghostflight. He'd rescued me from that monster, you know. He was pretty cool.

"Whatever you say, Ghosty." I grinned at my own joke and licked up the herbs. They tasted as sharp as they smelled, and for a second I was scared the herbs had cut off my tongue. I heard them moving away, but I was still trying to figure out how to see my tongue and check that it was still there.

My paws felt tingly, so I sat down. Maybe that's what Ghostflight was saying when he told me the herbs would make me better. I felt the tug of sleep behind my eyes, and for a second I resisted it, just because I could. It was a fun game, but one that quickly became boring. I shrugged and let sleep win.

I woke with a massive headache. It felt as if the entire cliff was crushing my skull. I heard myself groan. "The headache is part of the treatment, sorry," Ghostflight said. He didn't sound sorry at all. "Poppy and juniper should dull most of it. And I've added some. . . secret ingredients." I peeled open my eyes and licked up the paste immediately. If I hadn't been so desperate, I probably should have been more wary that Ghostflight was the one mixing herbs instead of one of the medicine cats.

But as Ghostflight had promised, the pain quickly began to dull until only a tightness behind my ears remained to remind me of it. I opened my eyes and was surprised to find myself not in the apprentices' den, but the larger Night Stalkers' cavern. My eyes were wide as I took it in. Although most of it was shrouded in shadows, the cavern was much, much taller than the others. I looked up, but couldn't see where it ended.

The floor of the cavern was about the same size as the warrior's or the runner's, perhaps a bit larger. It was still in the side of the cliff, obviously, though by the dimness it must have been deeper in. The pale white stone did a great deal to amplify the little light there was, however, and I could see clearly.

I blinked. But there was something wrong, something missing. Then I noticed that there weren't any nests in here at all. The moss where I had slept clearly had been hastily constructed, and the little hollows that pockmarked the floors in the other caves in which the others slept were strangely absent. This floor was smooth as smooth could be.

"So," Ghostflight mewed as he gathered his herbs back onto their wraps. He lined them up along the side of the room. "What do you remember?"

I sat up. It just didn't feel right talking to my mentor while lying on the ground. "We went out to train. There was a monster." I shivered, but pressed on. "Icepool walked me home and put me in my nest. Sour herbs. I-I woke up. . . crap, did that really happen?"

"Ghosty remembers it all."

I groaned and buried my head in my paws, face burning. "Gods, Sparkpaw. . ." I muttered.

"I told her you tripped and hit your head on a tree stump. That the medications were making you funky. That part was true. Mostly."

"You said the herbs were to make me feel better. What was wrong with me?"

Ghostflight shrugged. "You must have seen it's eye. Us Night Stalkers are naturally resistant, but you didn't know what to expect so that may have something to do with it. Basically, you were in shock, augmented by magic. Your brain didn't know how to deal with it so it shut down. It's just before sun-high now and the encounter with the monster" (I swore I heard him smirk) "was two nights ago."

I stood and tentatively stretched, afraid that my headache would come back in full force. It didn't; Ghostflight knew what he was doing. Or at least his 'secret ingredients' did. I had no doubts they were from Siva, since I knew our Healers had nothing like this. Hence why I was in the Night Stalkers' den instead of the Healers'.

I felt a twinge of regret. The thoughts had fallen so smoothly together, effortlessly. Siva fit in my thoughts quicker than I hoped. How could I believe something so far-fetched? Because it was true?

I watched as Ghostflight picked up the bundles of herbs and walked to the bare wall a few inches beside me. For a moment it looked like he was just going to store the herbs beside my temporary nest, but that soon passed when Ghostflight kept walking, right up the wall. His paws glowed white, leaving little iridescent pawprints in his path, revealing a small tunnel that had been concealed in the darkness. The entrance flashed white as he slipped inside.

I sat, scattering moss with my tail, and sighed. All semblance that all this was a dream was just crushed. No, not crushed. Pounded out of existence with a thousand boulders, more like.

"Why does everything weird have to happen to me?" I asked under my breath, watching as Ghostflight padded back down the wall, a grin on his face.

"Because that's what it means to be a Night Stalker, Tempestpaw, and this is just the beginning."


	6. V Adventure

I twirled my paw in the earth, creating little furrows and making the air sparkle with bits of sand that flickered like fairy dust in the sunlight. Sunlight, yeah. Ghostflight gave me another day off from training. He said he was doing it to be nice, but honestly I just think the monster-eye-shock thingy hadn't quite worn off yet.

Honestly, I almost despised him for it. With nothing to keep my mind occupied, it kept wandering back to that night out in the forest and the crazy story Icepool told me about Siva and the Star Rose. It was obviously nonsense, all of it.

So why did it make so much sense?

I swiped my paw through the furrows.

And then I felt someone behind me. It was one of those times when it doesn't make logical sense how I should have known there was anyone behind me at all, but at that moment I had two thoughts, both very quick and certain.

There was someone behind me.

And that someone was Willowpaw.

I sighed. "I don't bite, you know. Not usually, anyways." I hoped the smile I sent over my shoulder was reassuring enough.

The truth is, these days on break had really taken their toll on me. Even Sparkpaw, who I never knew to turn down a conversation, had been avoiding me. Warriors were always too busy to chat, and the other apprentices suddenly had something important to do whenever I was near. The jealousy I had felt towards my sister only days before now seemed trivial and childish.

When she finally made it close to me, I told her as much. "I was just, surprised, I guess. After all those moons of being told over and over how I would be the next Sun and then. . ." I flicked the onyx tethered at my neck with a paw. "I felt as if I let them down. Like I was just one big failure. And you were what I took all that out on. It was uncalled for, and I apologize."

Willowpaw looked stunned and I looked away, trying to ignore the heat in my ears. "Hey, I can be mature sometimes! No need to act so surprised," I grumbled.

When I finally had the courage to look back she smiled, and at that point I knew I had been forgiven. A good quarter of the pressure in my chest lifted, although the Night Stalker stuff would be much harder to get rid of. "Now can you please tell me why every cat acts like I'm carrying some mutant plague?"

Willowpaw's tail twitched and her face tightened. I doubted anyone other than me would have noticed the change, but, being her brother, I knew she had just become very frustrated. Not quite angry, but with only a whisker away from crossing that line. "Sparkpaw. No, no, nothing she said," Willowpaw quickly amended, having picked up on my own irritation, "she talks a lot, but she wouldn't do that. . ." She paused, as if trying to find a way to phrase her thoughts.

Her Sun training kicking in, probably. It was hardly ten days since she had the Star tied around her neck, but I caught the impression that Mallowsun was a thorough teacher and that Willowpaw was excelling under her tutelage. Willowpaw was like that, if she put her mind to it.

"She came to see you, before you went out on your Night Stalker training. Apparently you were acting strangely, and Ghostflight told her you hurt your head the night before. She was concerned for your safety and called for Lioncloud and Cricketfrost. But Ghostflight insisted that you'd be fine as long as you were brought to the Night Stalker's den. By that time the whole Clan was watching. . . Mintsplash wanted to check up on you, but Ghostflight refused. There was an argument. We were all afraid it would come to claws, but Ghostflight just walked away, took you and carried you into all the way up into the Night Stalker den as if you weighed less than a sparrow."

She blinked. "And that was that. It's not you, it's just. . . no one wants to be reminded of it. The rift between the Night Stalkers and the Clan."

"There is no rift; we're Clanmates as much as everyone else is," I argued, but the words felt weak to even my ears. During the first few days of training, I hadn't so much as seen another Clan cat other than the Night Stalkers or Cirrusblaze. I woke as the sun died and was asleep before it touched the horizon. I hadn't seen my sister or my friends. I had been cut out from their lives.

But I refused to let them be cut out of mine.

I stood suddenly, casting my senses around the camp. "What's wrong?" Willowpaw said, keeping up easily as I darted up the trail to the warriors' cavern.

"We're going on an adventure."

The adventure slowly gained momentum as Willowpaw and I collected the other apprentices away from their duties. It took a bit of finesse, but with Willowpaw's new speaking skills and my charming smile we eventually convinced everyone that their apprentices had been working hard enough the past few days and deserved an afternoon off.

It felt like old times, the six of us walking through the forest together, on our way to our old haunts. Willowpaw and I were near the center, following behind Sparkpaw as she took point. Rosepaw was on Willowpaw's side, Stonepaw close behind her. Lakepaw kept somewhat to the back, somewhat close to his brother.

"Tomorrow's the Meeting, who's excited?" Rosepaw broke the silence, bouncing on her paws as she walked. The Meeting, right. I had been out of it and hadn't remembered it was soon.

"I might go later, if Ghostflight lets me," I offered.

"I have to go as part of my training." That was Willowpaw. "Mallowsun said it's good practice with diplomacy and that I should use the time to learn how to talk to others better. What about you, Sparkpaw? Are you planning on coming?"

The ginger she-cat looked oddly mellow. "Depends. Hunters have to provide the food for the entire Clan and our guests. They need every paw to help."

Rosepaw jumped forward and poked Sparkpaw, trying to get a smile out of her, forcing her away from her lone place on point and back to the group. "They can't be working you the entire time. Especially since it's our first Meeting. They have to let you come for at least a little bit."

"I guess."

"Cmon, Sparkpaw. Adderthorn's forcing me to go. I'm supposed to start assessing which cats are most likely to pick a fight." Stonepaw's ears went back. So he didn't like fighting? I knew he was always the most weak-hearted of the group, but to be a fighter who didn't want to fight?

We all looked to Lakepaw, who in typical Lakepaw fashion had remained quiet throughout the entire exchange. When he spoke, I could hardly hear him, but I thought he said, "looking for affinities." I shrugged. Probably weird Reader stuff, like usual.

By this time we had made it to where the water gathered from the three little rivulets into a larger, deeper stream that eventually wound a lazy path to the sea. A large stone hung over the water here, the water cutting away the earth beneath but unable to erode away the bare rock. The banks were sandy and the trees stood back, allowing the sun to shine through uncontested by leaves.

It wasn't quite time for flowers to bloom, but the trees were in full bud. Little pink spots shone on each of the branches, and I tried to remember what they'd look like when they were fully green again. Willowpaw and I had been born in the spring and spent our kithood in the full of summer, but only a few moons of that had been outside the caverns. By the time we'd been apprenticed, the leaves were already fading into the reds and golds of fall.

We all made our way onto the rock, which was plenty large enough to accommodate five apprentices -Lakepaw had already wandered off to the riverbank by that point, probably to try and fish or something silly. Sparkpaw crouched at the far side, looking over the edge at the water lazily flowing a few tail lengths below. "Hey," I said as I came over. I joined her looking over the edge, watching the bottom ripple beneath our shadows.

After several moments of silence, I looked over, worried. I had never seen Sparkpaw still for so long in my life. "Umm." I had never opened a conversation with her before. Usually it was she who tied everyone into her conversations, not the other way around. "Hello?"

Nothing.

"Umm is there something-" Sparkpaw stood suddenly and leapt from the rock to the shore, going over to Lakepaw. I watched from my perk as she splashed him as she jumped into the stream, her laughter ringing across the water.

I found Willowpaw hanging back, having watched the whole thing. "Is something the matter with her?"

"I hadn't thought so; she's been acting the same as always the last few days. It's just today that she's been. . . quiet." Willowpaw tipped her head to the side. "I at least have to rescue Lakepaw from her. Mind helping Rosepaw out? Thanks." She darted off without waiting for my reply, leaving me no other option than to help with the impromptu herb gathering session.

I meant to check back up on Sparkpaw, but by the time we had collected enough herbs to clear Rosepaw's consciousness, only Willowpaw was left on the stone, telling about how Lakepaw had a dizzy spell and Sparkpaw offered to help him back to camp. "I didn't want you three worrying about where we went," she said, then yawned. Only then did I realize how far the sun had moved. I picked up the bundle of herbs -goldenrod was it?- and followed the others back to camp in silence, wondering what had happened in the last few days that had changed us so completely.


	7. VI Willow

Willowpaw's POV

She padded tentatively into the clearing, not quite sure what to expect. Of course, she'd heard the same tales as all the other kits about what the Meeting was like and heard accounts from the other warriors about their friends from the outside world, but it wasn't something she had experienced before.

To think of it, she hadn't even seen a cat from outside the Clan before. Cody and Yellow Eyes didn't count, in her mind, since they had both been in the Clan since she had been born.

Nervousness wasn't something Willowpaw felt often, but the telltale butterflies fluttered in her stomach as she tried to breathe and appear confident, befitting of her status and figure. She wasn't the kind of cat that looked good sulking, and without her assured, measured steps, she knew she would just present herself as scared, young, and sloppy. Mallowsun taught her better than that: _appearance is everything. _

Willowpaw took a moment to gather herself before joining the clearing proper, making sure to take that first step like she belonged there. That first confident step would be the basis of all opinions formed about her, and she was determined to make those opinions good ones. It would allow easier diplomatic ties when she was leader if the others respected her now.

Immediately more cat-scents washed over her than she could hope to process, making her lightheaded. She was in a different world now. She looked around, trying to commit the different pelts to memory. She'd eventually know each of the cats by name -she'd make it a point to introduce herself and make small talk with as many of them as possible that day- but for the first hour or so she would just walk around and gather information from her Clanmates. Hopefully she could gather some connections, and that would lead her to more connections.

She felt more confident with that string of thoughts. Everything was orderly and mathematical. It made sense that way; she enjoyed that sense of correctness. Her senses began to file away all the information, and her conscious mind began to notice things again: two tabby toms, identical, chatted beside each other, Stormfeather and some other cat she didn't know.

Curious, Willowpaw looked for cats she knew rather than those she didn't. Mallowsun, obviously, was mingling with the others. She was smiling more than Willowpaw had ever seen before, although Willowpaw knew Mallowsun could change how she acted easier than a snake shedding its skin and doubted this was just Mallowsun's soft side.

Adderthorn was there too. Willowpaw noticed him as he stood beside a whole cluster of cats she hadn't seen: a silver tabby, a black and white tom, a blue she-cat. So was Stonepaw, looking uncomfortable beside his mentor.

"Excuse us, but do you know a she-cat named Stella?" Willowpaw turned to find two other she-cats had cautiously approached, both around her age. The black she-cat looked wary and her blue eyes were wide, but the calico had some confidence. Willowpaw couldn't help but to be entrapped in her eyes, mismatched ember orange and jade green. "Dee -he's my brother- he told us Stella would be here, but we can't find her."

Willowpaw shook her head. "No, sorry. It's my first time here," she admitted. Looking closer, the two other she-cats were older than they had first appeared. They'd be warriors if they'd have been in a Clan. Feeling suddenly young, Willowpaw stood taller and cleared her throat. "If you know what she looks like I could help you look. I'd been meaning to get to know some cats."

"Great! She's a lilac point. Tall, dainty. Kinda like yourself, but cream. I'm Pepper, by the way. She's Karma, but we all call her Kit ever since she was a kit." The calico grinned, and I had the feeling that this was a long standing joke.

"Willowpaw."

"A Clan cat, huh?"

"In training, but yes."

"Don't you have some factions or something like that, yeah? Like hunters and fighters?"

Willowpaw nodded. "We each have a specialized job so that each cat benefits most from the system. Cats that are good at hunting are hunters and cats that are better at healing, heal. That way, the whole Clan is safe and each member can do what they do best for the good of the group. Is our structure common knowledge outside?" she asked, trying to fish for information of her own.

The calico shrugged, the black she-cat stayed silent at her side. "Dee's been coming here a lot. He's fascinated by the ideas of a Clan since we lived in the city as a family without seeing many outsiders."

"Just you and your siblings?" Willowpaw asked, curious. She couldn't imagine being forced to be around Tempestpaw all the time, let alone with Scarletfang. She loved her brother and respected their mother but to see just them every day?

Pepper gave a little mrow in amusement. "It's a bit more complicated than that, but yeah, that's the idea of it. You couldn't imagine living with just your family, yeah?"

"My brother's a daft fuzzball."

"So is mine," Pepper agreed, but Willowpaw felt neither of them meant it. "Wait, I think that's her there. Stella!" A cream colored she-cat turned her head from across the clearing, then flicked her tail to call them over. "Yeah, that's her. Well thanks for the help. Willowpaw, wasn't it? Keep your fuzzball in line for me, yeah?" Pepper said with a wink before jumping away.

The little black she-cat paused for a moment, gazing at me with her wide blue eyes. "Thanks," she whispered, so quietly Willowpaw wasn't sure she had said anything at all. She blinked those blue eyes and followed Pepper across the clearing, leaving Willowpaw to watch the three from a distance.

She twitched her whiskers in silent laughter, then looked around for other cats to talk to.

The Meetings were more entertaining than she could have ever imagined.

By sunhigh, she had talked to over two dozen outsiders.

By dusk, she had made more friends than she could remember their names.

It was exhausting work, but when she managed to pry herself away from the last group, she couldn't help but to feel proud. Exhilarated. It was almost time for Mallowsun's speech, and the whole clearing was packed full of cats. Clan cats, yes, but at least three times as many outsiders as well. The speech was a traditional end to the Meeting, and every cat in the clearing could feel the anticipation.

"Hey, sis." Tempestpaw flicked Willowpaw on the shoulder with his tail before sitting beside her, obviously appreciating the vantage she chose for the speaking tree.

"I haven't seen you all day. Did you just arrive?" Willowpaw asked, only now realizing that out of the many cats she had talked to, her brother had not been one of them.

He licked his chest, setting the fur straight. "Nah, been here before you came. Ghostflight's been putting me through some serious training with the crowds. Same as Mallowsun and you, I suppose." She was a bit surprised to hear that. What did a Night Stalker learn from training in crowds? Unless it were to identify each cat by scent, in case they crossed the borders at night?

"Excited for the speech?"

"As much as I can be." She didn't need to add how it would be she who would be giving the speeches in only a few short seasons.

Tempestpaw turned to her with a grin. "Yeah, well, I'm excited for what'll happen after the speech."

"What happens after-"

"Hello and welcome!" Mallowsun interrupted, as if on cue. Tempestpaw just winked at her before turning towards the tree Mallowsun perched in, leaving Willowpaw struggling to come to terms with the new information. There was nothing after the speech, right? The Clan cats would escort the others out of the territory and then go back to camp, just like the warriors told it to be.

"-however with the trees beginning to bud and the air becoming warm with the touch of summer, we can all hope for bountiful hunting. With summer comes peace, and with peace comes prosperity. Today we have come together as one to share in words and prey, regardless of our differences. - Thank you for joining us in our time of bounty, and may the stars light your path wherever it leads you."

Mallowsun jumped out of the tree and the clearing gradually began to fill with miscellaneous chatter once again. Some cats were sticking around the clearing, but most were already headed west, back to MapleClan's border.

"So what happens after the meeting?" she challenged Tempestpaw.

Her brother shrugged. "I don't know exactly, but Ghostflight told me to make sure you wouldn't leave."

"So what are we waiting for?" Tempestpaw just shrugged again and worked on cleaning the dirt from between his claws.

Willowpaw debated whether or not she should press her brother to give up more information, but decided he probably didn't know any more than she did. Either that, or he'd already decided not to tell her more, which, knowing Tempestpaw, meant she wouldn't learn anything from pushing him. So instead she decided to gather what she could from her surroundings.

Only a dozen or so cats were left in the clearing, most of them gathered beneath the large oak Mallowsun used for her speech. Oddly enough, the only cats she recognized were the Night Stalkers -all three of them- and Mallowsun. The others were unknown to her, even with all the cats she had met earlier in the day, a fact she noted as particularly curious.

Even as she watched, one of the cats broke off of the group and trotted over to them. A calico she-cat, her green eyes sparkling in the dusk light. "Hey, don't you two have somewhere to be?" she asked, not quite kindly. Willowpaw opened her mouth to reply, but Tempestpaw beat her to it.

"We're with Ghostflight."

The she-cat's face lit up, her demeanor changing in a heartbeat. "So you're the newbies! Icepool never mentioned you two were siblings. Well come on over, don't just sit around here being all shy! My name's Leaf by the way, like the tree." She turned and yelled back over to the cats gathered around the maple: "Hey guys! It's just the newbies!" Then turned back to us, and in a slightly softer voice -emphasizing slightly. "We're going to have to wait until it's darker to have the meeting, but you guys should come on over."

"Isn't the Meeting over?" Willowpaw asked.

The calico she-cat looked confused. "Of course not, it hasn't even started yet. But we'll miss it if we keep sitting here! C'mon!" Tempestpaw followed, and after a slight hesitation, Willowpaw joined the group beneath the tree.

"Great!" Leaf exclaimed when she had found a spot in the circle between Tempestpaw and another tom. Willowpaw felt Mallowsun's tail flick her shoulder as she sat beside her mentor, and felt a little better for her reassurances. "Time for introductions! I'm Leaf."

The circle fell silent until Leaf poked the dark brown tom beside her. He narrowed his eyes at her, speaking more towards Leaf than at the two apprentices. "Shadow."

The dark ginger she-cat beside him was much quicker to offer her name up as Ruby. And around the circle they went until each of the other four cats now had names: Ivy, Breeze, Holly, and Glimmer.

"And we're the Svans who help keep MapleClan safe, alongside your Night Stalkers!" Leaf concluded.

"Svans?" Willowpaw asked, looking first at Leaf and then at Mallowsun beside her. "Who are they?"

"You haven't told them about Siva." Ruby mewed, a statement, not a question.

"They'd only been apprenticed four days ago, and since then Tempestpaw's been ill."

"It's no matter," a grey tom spoke as he stood, "we still must travel, and this will pass the time."

With that, Willowpaw quickly received a crash course in the world of Siva and the war the Night Stalkers fought every night to keep the rest of MapleClan from knowing about it.

She didn't know what to think. Willowpaw closed her eyes, letting the words sink in as the other cats explained, trusting Mallowsun to keep her paws on course. It was nonsense, surely, but each fact had a place in her mind, fitting perfectly into the gaps of the stories she had been told since she was only a kit.

Willowpaw hardly noticed when they stopped, so immersed in the story as she was, and then Holly fell silent and it was over. Desperate, Willowpaw looked to her brother for support, for something to help her ground herself in this new reality.

She found him twisting his claw in the dirt, drawing little circles, unphased by the way her world had just been thrown upside down. He wasn't shocked?

"You knew?" she whispered, eyes wide, and though she intoned it like a question, both of them knew it wasn't.

Tempestpaw shrugged. "Yeah."

"You knew and you didn't tell me?"

"Ghostflight told me not to tell you yet."

"You're horrible."

"Sure I am, sis."

"We should leave before the moon fully rises," Holly mewed before disappearing into the face of the stone. Only Willowpaw recognized they had stopped in the same clearing they had drawn their stones from, the stones behind them riddled with tunnels leading deep down to the belly of the earth. She followed the group inside, and though she wasn't blindfolded this time, the darkness made her surroundings invisible all the same.

They were silent as they followed the trail down deeper, and Willowpaw was acutely aware that every pawstep made the Rose at her chest pulse. It wasn't quite painful, nor was it particularly uncomfortable, but Willowpaw didn't enjoy the feeling either. It felt powerful, uncontrollable, which put her on edge.

Just when she thought she couldn't take another pawstep, her nose touched a cool wall. She pulled away, breath coming in short gasps. There was a soft hiss, like the rustle of dead leaves, and suddenly she could see. It was as if the room were covered in grey fog, both reflecting the light and consuming it. The effect made it so that everything she could see was blurry and her sight was limited to only a few pawsteps in any direction. Willowpaw spotted Mallowsun's familiar calico fur -or at least the white and ginger patches- glowing in the grey, and quickly hurried to her mentor's side.

Mallowsun didn't break the heavy silence, only allowing her to come closer with an amused smile and a flick of her tail. With Mallowsun to guide her, the two joined the others at the far side of the cavern.

The back wall was the next thing of interest, and, feeling safer among the other cats, Willowpaw took a step forward to watch it. It was glowing faintly of greyness, calling it silver would have been too generous; it was too dark, and not at all shiny. It pushed away the fog so that the cats closest to it were clearly defined. But the fog pushed back, she noticed when she finally turned away from the shimmering wall, leaving those farthest still blurred at the edges.

"We've stayed here long enough. It's too dangerous for us to stay on this side for long on the new moon."

"Ooh! I can show those two around! Let's go!" Leaf dashed forward, pushing her paw against the wall. It ripped apart with the sound of an avalanche, the rock dripping with the grey-silver light. The Svans hopped through the gap and disappeared, leaving only Willowpaw and Mallowsun and a hesitant Tempestpaw at her side. He gave her a small smile and followed his mentor as they both went into the light.

"What are you guys waiting for, winter?" A paw appeared from the light and before she knew it, Willowpaw was pulled through the gap and into another world.


	8. VII Siva

My first look at Siva and I fell off my paws like I had run into a wall. It was awesome, beautiful. Trees weren't just the shades of green I knew back on earth, but also faded into blues and pale purples. The sky was cloudless and shimmered blue and aquamarine. It was bright, but I saw no hint of a sun. Two large moons -or were they planets?- hung just above the horizon, blurry on their edges but sharp around their shared orange rings.

The grass beneath my paws easily rose to my chest as I stood, and instead of being flat blades, each stem was rounded and tufted with soft, feathery fuzz, like the antennae of a moth.

But even through the beauty, I could feel the brokenness. I could feel it in my bones, like a cold chill that wouldn't go away. I could feel it in the looming silence. I could feel it in the stillness, without even a breeze to ruffle my fur.

"Too many tears have been shed for our land, let not yours be added to the tally." Who was crying? I blinked but couldn't see anything but blurs, tried to breathe through my shivering lungs. Frustrated, I pulled a paw across my eyes.

Breeze gave a purr of amusement, flicking his grey tail over my back. "Here, let's take a tour. Their talk would only bore you." He winked in their direction as he steered me away, heading for the trees. A large red spire of rock jutted from the earth like a fang pointed to the sky. Smaller boulders lay strewn around it, and it was here that Breeze leapt to sit, inviting Willowpaw and I up with a wave of his tail.

"The first thing you should know is that Siva is not your Earth. Some trees that look like maples are not maples, but Eqpal, whose bark carries enough electric current to kill you if you touch it. Rabbits here are not prey, but predator.

"Even the air you breathe is not the same as the air there. The composition is similar, but different in important ways. I'll spare you the science behind it, but the air here forges new connections in your brain. Connections that exist are strengthened and made more receptive. Because of this, your emotions will be much stronger than on Earth, and you'll have to have more control over them." A smile played across his face, and as if on cue a surge of anger rose up in my chest, stronger than it had any right to be. I quashed it, my pride fighting to show I was capable of controlling my inner self.

"The same element in the air also makes one unable to speak lies," Breeze continued, nodding when I voiced my disbelief. "In this world, control of one's body and mind is placed at the utmost importance. One could be the smartest, strongest cat in the world, but without control of himself, he would not last a day on Siva."

With Breeze's warning in my ears, I resisted the urge to explore myself and knew the same wants pulled on my sister's heart. The whole extra emotions thing was starting to wear me down, and small things like awe of Siva's beauty warred with the distress I felt tearing at my soul. It made me queasy, almost, the brokenness that I couldn't see but could feel as if it were a hot ember in my stomach. I tried to distract myself. "So if you can't lie, is what they're talking about really that boring?"

Breeze laughed, stretching his flank across the warm stones. "It is! They'll argue for hours over something, and then when you finally think they've all come to an agreement, someone will dispute the first point and they'll start all over again. Even worse, someone will debate the integrity of the debate and they'll debate what is and what isn't allowed to be debated. And heavens take mercy if they decide they can't debate about debating!"

I tried to wrap my head around that, but gave it up as a lost cause and tried to shift the conversation back to what I was really curious about: the air of truth (as I had quickly dubbed it). "Okay, so I'm curious. If the air stops you from lying, what if you forget something? Like you tell someone to take a right to get somewhere but it's actually a left? What happens then?"

"It depends," Breeze started, flicking his grey patched tail. His head tipped off the rock, and he stared at me upside down. "If they truly believed it to be a right and were just mistaken or misinformed, then they would be able to speak just like you and I are now. However, if they knew it to be a left, the lie could never be spoken."

Willowpaw was watching now, having pulled her attention away from the foreign forest with its canopy of rose and lavender. "So it's less of a truth and lie distinction, and more on the principles of belief. Whatever the speaker believes to be true, is true for them."

"Well, yes and no. My fur is not blue. No matter how much I believe my fur is blue, it won't make it true. Try it, try thinking something false and try telling me about it."

I didn't think my fur was blue, and I knew there wasn't anything that could convince me of the fact. I tested it, but found that however much I wanted to tell Breeze about my blue fur, the words never formed. It was just a tight place in my chest, like I had been holding my breath too long. "That's cool," I said.

"Honestly it's annoying as hell." Breeze turned himself right side up with a grin and a flick of his paw. "Not to mention some of the creatures here can use this air to put about their own whims. Force you to see what is not there and feel what is not true. Many a svan has fallen to a powerful glanli or varnaith and their aura of terror. Hence why you two are with me and not off on your own, and why all of us remain in this small bit of forest, a small bit protected day and night by the powers of our best warriors and mages."

He paused and flicked his ears, looking over our heads to the cats -and Svans- in the clearing beyond. "Most of our world is not so beautiful. What remains does at a very high price."

"Will the Rose make Siva safe again?" Willowpaw asked, breaking the silence that had grown between us.

"Maybe." We asked a few more questions, but Breeze's short answers did little to clarify. The whole time I felt almost ready to explode with the different emotions surrounding Siva. Even when I knew these emotions were not my own and only pushed upon me by the air I breathed, knowledge did nothing to alleviate the feelings. Willowpaw seemed to be handling the change better than I had -even with my prior experience with Svan monsters, or perhaps because of it.

"How many Svans died?" I sat up, feeling the change in the air. Literally, unlike back on Earth, the question lit a spark in the chemical makeup of the world. Everything suddenly muted -the red rocks went dull, the violet leaves went grey, even the unnaturally-blue sky turned to a more mellow overcast hue. Electric charge made my fur stand on end and put a metallic taste in my mouth. As one, the Svans far across the clearing turned in our direction.

Breeze was very still. He tensed against the stone, his paws bunched beneath him as if he were ready to run -or fight. I shared a glance with Willowpaw, felt her horror and distress added -no, multiplied- to the tension in the air. "Millions," Breeze said.

Silence hung for a moment longer, then Breeze licked at the fur on his chest and with a sigh the feeling began to fade as light crept back into the world. My paws shook with the release. As if when I breathed the world in, the world also took a part of me with it too. "How," my voice came out as a whisper and I had to clear my throat to start again. "How long should the meeting take?"

"Only as long as it lasts and not a moment sooner." Breeze turned his ears towards the group of cats and Svans on the plain. There was a pale green light sparkling around the grey tabby fur, similar enough to Ghostflight's silver pawsteps that I guessed he was doing something with the Svan magic to enhance his hearing. After a few moments pause he yawned, stretched and hopped down from the rock. "They call for you, Willowpaw."

She nodded and headed towards the group. I made to follow, but Breeze looped around and blocked me. "You may both have a duty to Siva, but her burden is much heavier than yours."

I could feel Willowpaw's presence beside me even as she continued further away. I felt closer to my sister than I had in months, almost as close as when we were kits, a time in which I had never heard my name without Willowpaw's somewhere nearby. I wanted so badly to follow, to be with her as these cats shoved their problems upon her, to fight with her against all this madness. "Heavier than risking my life every night for a mistake you Svans allowed to happen?"

Breeze prickled at my accusation. "If you are able to speak those words, they must be true in your heart. But think on this: could any Night Stalker do their work without the help of Sivan energy?"

Memories of Ghostflight's fight against the Iqval flashed into my mind's eye. Ghostflight's supernatural speed, strength, and light made the fight seem more like a dance, but without that I knew he wouldn't have lasted a moment against the shadowy monster. I shook my head slowly, starting to connect the ideas Breeze was alluding to.

If Svan energy was necessary to be a Night Stalker and I had pulled the Onyx from the caves just as my sister had felt the pull of the Star Rose. . .

"I'm Svan."


	9. VIII Thief

[[ here's my obligatory update of the year. Long one, but it gives some really needed background. maybe there will be more soon with the whole apocalypse and all that ]]

Even when he said nothing, I could tell -feel, almost. I was starting to learn how to use this Svan air- that Breeze was disappointed I hadn't made the connection sooner. "All of MapleClan have some Svan blood. You two have more than most. Your mother's mother was Svan in full, as was your father. Other than Batfrost, you and your sister over there are the closest to us than any others."

"Batfrost?" I only now realized that while the taciturn she-cat had accompanied us through to Siva, she was not part of the council that sat on the plain.

Breeze sat and plucked the head from one of the grass stalks in front of us, tossing the stalk and letting the seed roll around on currents of air faintly tinted green. It spun in front of my nose and then wobbled a bit as it jumped up and around Breeze's ears. "Batfrost is Svan. She was born here, raised here. She had no intention of ever visiting Earth. That is, until her brother found himself infatuated with a cat from Earth, another Night Stalker." Breeze plucked a blade of grass and had it dance alongside the seed. "Her name was Riverleap. She was curious and met Batfrost's brother in Siva. He eventually returned to Earth with her and they raised a family in MapleClan. Yet he still worked as a Night Stalker and one day he was killed back on Earth.

"Batfrost originally went to Earth in order to take the kits -and Riverleap- to be raised as Svans, but Riverleap insisted the kits stay in MapleClan. At this point, Batfrost didn't have any ties in Siva. Her mate and fighting companion had been killed fighting for Siva's borders many seasons past and she had no other family to speak of. Her brother's kits and the battle to save her home were all she had, and both of those could only be found on Earth. She stayed with Riverleap to watch over them and help MapleClan fight." Breeze broke more blades of grass, swirling them in a cloud that shimmered with green. "She still watches over his blood, though by now all his kits have died -it was a long time past in your Earth years- and only two of his kin remain: Glimmer, who spends most of her time in Siva now, and Mallowsun."

"Batfrost is related to Mallowsun?"

"She's Mallowsun's great aunt. And still looks younger, I'd say." Breeze grinned, the blades of grass spun wide circles in the air, chasing each other from tip to tail.

I let that idea bounce around for a while. I may have had more time than Willowpaw to process all this, but the idea that Batfrost was older than any cat I knew the name of, older even than the cats the elders talked about. The fact that she was old even before then, that she had a mate and a family that had all died, a whole life before she even stepped foot on Earth and then several lifetimes over once she arrived.

At least that solved the question of how she was able to handle most of Ghostflight's share during my apprenticeship.

Breeze's ears glowed green again and he tipped his head over towards the cats on the plain. The grass blades that he'd been playing with in the air between us lost their glow and floated lifelessly back to the ground. "Come, it is finished."

They were saying their goodbyes as Breeze and I approached. Leaf, the bubbly calico, bumped her nose against Icepool's before she departed. Wordlessly, Mallowsun stepped back through the portal. It was nondescript on this side, just a shimmer in the air flattening the stalks of the grass in a neat circle around it. When Tempestpaw followed, he found himself back in the grey-fog that filled the caves.

...

We heard the screams long before camp was in sight. Ghostflight and Icepool shared a glance before both leapt into the darkness, Mallowsun not far behind. White light trailed behind their paws, flares of light centering around each cat. Willowpaw and I followed as quickly as possible, our path lit by Mallowsun's pawsteps.

I expected to detour around the cliff but before I knew what was happening Ghostflight had gripped me in his jaws by the ruff and jumped downwards. My screams were lost with the ones echoing loudly in camp. White light flared bright as we landed, then was sucked away just as quickly. Ghostflight dropped me and I landed flat on my stomach.

"MALLOWSUN! Help her! HELP HER!" Heatherstorm wailed over the screams. Her eyes were wide and wild, her face dripping with tears and blood oozing from long scratches over her eyes.

"Your face-"

"I don't care about me! Help Ottertuft!" I looked beyond. Ottertuft was pinned to the ground by Lioncloud and Cricketfrost. Stonepaw held her neck down while Mintsplash seemed to be trying to talk to her. Ottertuft only screamed, her voice raw and broken.

I wobbled to my paws, looking to my sister for answers, but she had followed Mallowsun to the center of the fray. Mintsplash stopped her murmurings and rolled a stick into Ottertuft's mouth. She whirled around. "I need to know where she put it! I can feel it faintly, to the south, but I can't leave her like this."

"I told you already! I could fetch it for you!" Lakepaw said from her side. "I can feel it calling when I touch her."

"But you can't find it without her!" Mintsplash hissed, her hackles bristling as she turned on him.

Lakepaw looked defiant, something I had never seen in him. "Let me try."

"Go," Willowpaw spoke over Mintsplash's protests. He raced off without a glance behind. "Stonepaw, help him, go," Willowpaw took the grey tom's place at Ottertuft's neck as he followed his brother into the brush. "They can do it, you need to believe in him."

It was then I realized what had caused Ottertuft's condition: she had lost her soul stone. A shudder raced through me and I quickly pawed for my own, reassuring myself it was still attached to the string around my neck.

Ottertuft's claws dug into the ground but with two cats holding her down she couldn't move. Mintsplash spluttered, still glancing from the brush to where Willowpaw now commanded the attention. Even Mallowsun stepped back into the buzz of cats crowded around the scene, though she kept her gaze solidly on Willowpaw as she did so.

Ghostflight nudged me into the shadows of the cliff and I followed, giving the others room to organize. Willowpaw called Jaypool and Juniperspark over to change places with the two healers, allowing them to tend to Heatherstorm's face. She refused to follow into the medicine cave, so Rosepaw brought what supplies they needed out to the clearing.

Ghostflight had left sometime earlier, silently, and I couldn't pinpoint when. I assumed he or Icepool had followed Lakepaw and Stonepaw out into the forest. After all, it was night and there was always the chance, however slim on the full moon, that they would encounter some Svan horror.

The moon climbed into the sky. Most of the Clan had trickled back into their dens. The fear and pain gripped them too, but there was nothing to be done, nothing but to wait for Lakepaw and Stonepaw to return. I couldn't tell if Ottertuft was getting better or worse: she had stopped clawing for the most part, but the muffled screams continued and her muscles shook in rough spasms.

Part of me wanted to stay. Solidarity, I guess. I really didn't want to just leave her there in pain, but like everyone else there was nothing I could do to help and though I didn't know Ottertuft particularly well, seeing the playful she-cat like this hollowed out something on my insides that made her screams bounce uncomfortably inside the emptiness it left. But eventually, like all the others had, I turned to my own den to sleep whatever nighttime there was remaining.

I felt the onyx acutely at my chest as I twisted in my nest. I was too hot, too cold, a stick prodded into my side that I removed only to find another. Eventually I fell into something resembling sleep, restless visions of Siva and Ottertuft's muffled wailing and the thumping of my heartbeat together in a deep, endless memory of loss.

...

It was more like another part of a dream when Ghostflight entered the cave. He told me Ottertuft was fine, to sleep through the day as I'd be on patrol with him that night. I needed no more convincing, as the nest had finally started to become comfortable and I slipped back into sleep.

I woke again a few hours before sunset. I knew that later that night I'd come to regret not sleeping when I had the chance, but I wanted to talk to my sister and I would have no better chance than tonight. Besides, I had slept for almost twelve hours already and though half of that time wasn't particularly restful, the thought of staying on the stone floor any longer made my bones ache.

The camp outside was quieter than usual as I wandered slowly around. Usually everyone was relaxing the day after the meeting, talking about who they had seen and exchanging gossip others may not have heard. The hunters were always particularly joyful. Catching enough prey to stock for meeting day was stressful and many of them were glad to be back on their daily routine.

There was still some of that. Jaggedwing was recounting a particularly vivid conversation to Redtalon and Thorncrest, complete with accents and acting provided by Stormfeather. Lioncloud was pestering Yellow Eyes about some new herbs he and a cat called Lazarus discussed that would help with her persistent cough.

But on the other side I could pick out some cats that spoke softly and brought prey to remote corners of the camp to eat instead of joining in. Some weren't all that surprising: Pineshard had always been reserved and jumpy and it was no surprise that he ate furthest from the medicine cave and kept casting worried eyes around the camp, pawing at his soul stone nervously. Snowhare and Sandpetal shared a squirrel silently. Juniperspark sat by the camp wall beside Jaypool, looking with him out into the forest even though it wasn't her job to keep watch.

I found Willowpaw sharing a crow with Sparkpaw and Rosepaw in a sunny area beside a fallen log. Despite wanting to talk to Willowpaw about what had transpired the night before, I realized I didn't really know how to bring it up or what, exactly, I wanted to talk about so I detoured to pick up a shrew and joined the three she-cats.

They stopped talking as I approached and I hesitated until Willowpaw gestured me forward with a flick of her tail. "He's a Night Stalker, he's going to hear about it soon. And besides, the whole Clan knows." Odd, but I waited for one of them to explain, taking a bite from the shrew.

"Ottertuft's soul stone, it had been stolen. During the meeting, probably," Sparkpaw said.

Rosepaw looked towards the medicine den. If I read her right, she looked almost guilty. "Stonepaw and Lakepaw fought him off and got it back. Lakepaw took a good beating. He should be fine though," she finished quickly.

Sparkpaw pulled off a bit of crow. A feather stuck to her nose. "The thief got away, though from what we've heard he was worse off than Lakepaw was. Didn't think Stonepaw had it in him, apparently seeing our brother hurt really got him going. Wish they would have caught him but the slippery fox-dung coward got away." She sneezed and the feather shot off into brush. "At least they got Ottertuft's stone back. She made a right fuss when they gave it to her, then fell asleep, bam, right there with Yewmoon still sittin' right on top her. Say she'll be right as rain tomorrow."

I nodded and they quickly moved on to what they had probably been talking about before I arrived. Surprisingly, it had nothing to do with the events yesterday and instead centered around the top of the cliffside before the ocean. Sparkpaw loved it -the sunsets were pretty there and gulls were easy pickings. Rosepaw thought she'd like to go out more, but there was always too much to do and Cricketfrost grumped too much when she did wander out. Willowpaw hadn't left camp at all since she'd drawn the stone (other than their trip to the stream that one day) and though she hated cleaning the salt from her fur the smell that sometimes came all the way across the forest made her miss it all the same. They looked expectantly at me and while I tried to convince them that it was a nice place, Willowpaw rebutted that I was always terrified when we had to train around there and I was forced to admit that I didn't much like the height of the cliff at all, especially when it was windy, and that no, I couldn't appreciate the sights.

It was only as we started to relax into their easy company that a sharp yowl interrupted us. Rosepaw startled, her fur on end. But it was a familiar call and we all glanced up to the cliffside.

Mallowsun stood on the ledge of the warrior's cave. The sun rose against the trees, bathing the cliffside in a half-light that sharpened the colors on her left while leaving her right dark and shadowed. The Rose winked as she moved. "Cats of MapleClan," she called from above. I could see why Willowpaw was destined to walk in the same path, they both had the same aspect of voice. Determined, confident, absolute. Even knowing this, I felt the tug of her words piercing the air like needles straight into every cat in the clearing.

"There has been a tragedy. A soul, snatched away in a time of peace and friendship, causing one of our own serious pain and suffering." Mallowsun stood and waved her tail, encompassing the clearing. "We have righted that wrong. Ottertuft is resting under the watchful eyes of our healers and stone readers, those that have been trained with the knowledge of many generations. They have learned from those past, from our ancestors mistakes and their triumphs and through this they know that while something of this nature has not happened during our lifetimes, it is not without precedent and they have the knowledge to repair what had been severed. It will take time, but in a few suns Ottertuft will be fully healed.

"I would like to take this time to remind everyone of something that we have all failed to teach. Our soul stones are our souls. They are as paws and ears and tails, and it is easy to forget that unlike paws or eyes, our soul stones are not physically attached in any way. They do not bleed when their ropes are severed. We do not feel pain when they are bumped. But this is a reminder and a lesson to all of us that just like our hearts or our paws or our stomachs, our souls are important. It is the stone that makes you who you are and it is the stone that makes you one of us. One of MapleClan. Please remember to take care of it. Tend to it. And remember that while our healers are here to tend to your paws, our stone readers are here to tend to your souls. Mintsplash is at this moment creating new ways we can safeguard our souls. Do not be afraid. Remember, this event has not happened in any of our memories and is unlikely to happen again so long as we are vigilant and continue to protect our souls as we would protect our hearts.

"I would also like to share what we know about this thief, to stop any rumors of what transpired before they can take root and to dispel any questions you may have had regarding the events of yesterday's meeting.

"The thief was a white tom with some brown tabby markings. He was small in stature and looked underfed. Stonepaw estimated he was of a young warrior's age, perhaps two or three season cycles. With Stonepaw and Lakepaw's bravery, they fought the tom off outside of the birch forest between the pond and the human houses. They successfully retrieved the soul stone. We ask every cat to watch carefully for any hint of trespassing in that area, and to report back immediately if any cat is sighted with his description."

"We should stop these meetings!" Adderfrost called from the crowd. "They're only showing our weakness and inviting them in our borders!"

Mallowsun stepped closer to the ledge, her claws wrapping around the stone. "We will do no such thing. The thief is greatly injured and no doubt already regrets his attempts to defile MapleClan's pride. No, MapleClan is strong. Not despite our interactions with the outsiders, but because of them. We shall not close our borders with thoughts full of blood and revenge because of the actions of one foolish tomcat. Our allies outside the Clan strengthen us. It was Remmi who saved many lives when we suffered from greencough. It was Quail and her mate who warned us of the fire early enough to evacuate to the coast many seasons back. My own father was an outsider before he discovered the Clan. He wasn't just born into our customs but accepted them by choice and was a loyal warrior until his last breath.

"MapleClan is not weak. I will never tell you to cower within our borders for fear of our lives. When our enemies appear MapleClan's justice is sure and quick. Like Blizzardsun's campaign against the tainted ones that threatened the safety of every cat in the forest, it was MapleClan's warriors who trained anyone willing to fight and it was MapleClan's own that fought the hardest and longest on the front lines until every last tainted was dispelled. This is our history and we would not stand idly by if there were danger lurking. But one bad cat passed through alone. One bad cat that made one bad choice. We have righted the wrong done to us and he has been punished accordingly. We will not take such dramatic action to harm all of our allies for the choices of one. This thief will not dishonor us again, and if he does he will be shown our strength just like any other cat willing to unchain our full wrath.

"We are MapleClan and we are strong. We will not allow this injustice to be forgotten. We will learn, we will adapt as we always do, for in that is our strength. What has been broken can be fixed and will be fixed. The thief was driven away in cowardice and fear of our strength. We have learned and we will never forget. This is our way."

Mallowsun stepped back into the shadows and the clearing buzzed with the news. Thankfully, it seemed like most of the tension had dissipated. The break into chatter was full of relief. Back to normal, for everyone. Though it wasn't hard to see there were a few dissenters, those that eyed where Mallowsun stood with more frequently and harder faces, their tails twitching. Adderthorn, always one to question and retort, was the obvious one. Some others stood near him, though. Heatherstorm, for one, with her face covered in salves that made her eyes sink deep in her face. My mother was also watching the ledge with narrowed eyes, though whether she was legitimately questioning Mallowsun's choices or just distracted by some other thought and chose that location to stare at was anyone's guess.

I checked the sun, below the trees now but far from dusk, and decided I had time to check in with the other two apprentices before I had to leave for patrol. I told the others as much as I excused myself and Rosepaw followed me up. "I should probably go finish my work too. We've had a lot of stock out today that needs to be sorted," she said with a smile my direction.

We crossed the clearing together, making our way to the medicine cave. It was a small opening that quickly expanded into a spacious room. On one side were dips in the floor filled with soft mosses and feathers, the other side hosted an arch made of stone. The gentle slope led to a flat top where the healers themselves slept. Underneath water dripped gently from the stone to form a small pool. I knew the dark slit in the back corner would take you to the stone reader's glowing cave.

Lakepaw occupied one of the nests, his white muzzle tucked under a paw as he dozed. Stonepaw sat nearby licking the fur at his chest flat. He stood when he noticed us, revealing a mat of herbs pressed to his side. He didn't seem in pain as he crossed over to us and I remembered Rosepaw's words, that Lakepaw had taken the worst of it. Stonepaw rubbed shoulders with his sister before she turned wordlessly towards the other side of the cavern. "She worries too much. Lakepaw's just a bit dramatic with the pain, he'll be okay," Stonepaw said.

"I heard you two had to fight for the stone. And here I am thinking that it's my job to chase things in the night," I replied with a grin. I wanted to push him for the story, curious to see what he had to say about everything, but I was too late for that. He had probably been pestered all day and I was here as a friend not an interrogator. He gave another glance over to Lakepaw. "I'm just glad you guys managed it. Glad everyone is okay, now."

Stonepaw turned towards his brother, watching him intently. "He really did find it. I knew he would, somehow, but watching him track this thief." Stonepaw paused and flicked his ears. "It was like he was possessed. I could hardly keep up with him, he was already on that tomcat's back before I could even get there. Fought like a demon, too. Determined, even if he had never been much good. The thief managed to get Lakepaw on the shoulder though, and threw him right off. Then he saw me and ran off towards the south, dropped the stone though." Stonepaw gestured to the herbs on his side. "Got this from a nasty thornbush on the way back," he said with a chuckle.

So good things all around. I sighed and let a smile stay. "Tell Lakepaw thanks for me." Stonepaw waved his tail and wandered back to where Lakepaw snored into the moss, leaving me to turn back outside, making my way to where Ghostflight was waiting for me.


	10. Art!

No more story yet, but I've been doing some doodling of concepts for this and unfortunately ffnet is really bad about images the only thing I can change is the cover. I just wanted to make a little announcement that I'll be changing the cover for all the new concept art every night for the next week. its a bit of a tedious way to do it but there will be rotating art for a while ! exciting !

Anyways I just didn't want to spook anyone by the daily-changing covers. They're just concepts either characters or landscapes and such. Follow or fav to check the cover every day if you wish, there should be some cool things up there!

I guess I can also take this break in the story to talk a bit more about it. If it wasn't obvious, I'm a huge fantasy nerd and I've always wondered what would happen if something... unnatural happened to the normal Clan structure. I had a few short stories in a similar worldbuild already, both hanging a bit closer to 'human' and further from canon. It was a great way to experiment with smaller group structures and how they would react to threats.

I loved writing this latest part for three big reasons:

First, I was finally able to show how important Soul Stones are to MapleClan's identity. While they do play a part in the beginning of the story with the apprentices pulling their stones and again when Ghosty uses his to fight the okmae, I didn't feel like they were any more than stones marking one's social status. The fact that losing one's stone causes physical pain is something that would happen to any cat in MapleClan and I wanted to really enforce the fact that these Soul Stones, while very powerful, are also a great vulnerability.

Secondly, backstory! MapleClan isn't alone in these woods. They weren't the first cats to inhabit the cliffside and there is a great history with this portal between earth and Siva. to the far south would be the lake Clans, if they still existed at this time. We aren't so far from canon as one would think. I love putting all my stories in the same world, and if you were to read through all my fanfic (short stories and contest pieces too) you could find some connections between everything. Characters whose names show up in stories, references to places or things that have changed due to events in other plotlines. Mallowsun's reference to the Tainted Ones are from a short story series of a similar name a while back, a group that also play an antagonistic role in Demarcation, who are referenced as past foes in Darkest at Midnight, who probably evolved from the events of Eyes of Fire (which occurs right down the coast from where MapleClan live!). To the North are the Sunbirds, a group of tribes that I haven't really written much on, but I love all the same and that will, hopefully, be introduced here so that they can have their own time to shine. (:

Third and probably most importantly, I was finally, FINALLY able to give some minor characters a bit of time to gather together a personality. It is really tough to show off the rest of the Clan when our main character is only going out at night and interacting with none of them, but I do have a bit of story for each of them that I can slowly start rolling out as we get more of these kinds of scenes. So that's big and exciting! I think I managed to call out every cat that I hadn't given prior interaction with so that's cool!

And that leads me into my question to yall for this first quarter of the story: who is your favorite character so far? Who do you want to see more of leading up to the first half? (Honestly I love them all so please, give me some cats to focus on! I'm personally rooting for Spark tho)

Thanks for the opportunity for me to ramble a bit about this world. I do love writing in it and exploring the possibilities of what can go wrong. And thank you for getting this far! I really do appreciate every one of you for taking the time out of your day to go about reading fanfiction. Thank you! Remember to fav/follow for updates (and to see all the new art!). And leave a comment (review?) if you enjoyed! It really helps to hear what yall like and dislike so I can keep giving out that Quality Content.

Until next time, peace~


	11. Interlude&Poll

[[ yo back with a bit of an interlude as I ran into a bit of a branching path for my plotting. I have a huge choice for the next few chapters, and following how I usually run these things, I'm leaving that choice up to all of you. (the poll is linked to my profile, head over to cast your vote or leave a comment or both). The content will be unchanged, don't worry yall won't be spoiled on the plotline. Rather, the choice I have to make is one of length. Tempest and Willow are about to dive into the world of Siva and the magic it contains, but the question is: do yall want to see the whole training arc of them learning how the world works or would you rather jump straight into the plotline and have the shortened version of their apprenticeship?

The reason I'm asking is because this is because I was looking at my plot sheet and the next five chapters are all planned to be part of Tempest and Willow's training. That's a lot of training arc! I would love to take the time to slow down a bit (though they still get into plenty of trouble, Ghost's teaching is quite... hands on, and it is magic we're talking about). But there is plenty of argument for skipping past most of this and diving straight into the main plotline when they become established warriors in full.

I would love to hear yalls opinions on the world so far, what yall want to see more of. Do yall want to venture more in the fantasy?

and because I have plenty of shorts from the world of Siva, here's a bit of a teaser into a very important meeting between two very important Svans. We'll see a bunch more of these two in the future. Enjoy! (: ]]

. . .

Waiting is so much more painful when all the outcomes fill her with dread. Either the vanguard will manage to hold the lines and she will have to spend another night worrying over Day, or they will be forced to retreat to Eridon's walls, leaving everyone who remained outside to die. And the absolute worst, where the nameless shadows appear at their walls, the vanguard consumed. That line catches in her mind, snagging endlessly as the hours tick by. It is a weight, pulling the air from her, leaving her with black spots in her eyes and gasping to breathe.

Mira is unlucky that her job doesn't require much thought. She is a messenger, taking notes from one side of the camp to the other, back through the company's entourage and supply chain all the way across the walls to where scouts and mages lurk in wait. She watches her paws when she's upon the walls, careful of her precarious footing and even more precarious grasp on hope. The longer she refuses to watch the horizon, the longer she can pretend that Day is waiting for her at the end of the deliveries. She can pretend she will see his yellow eyes sparkling from under the shadows of the stone wall; she can imagine Day standing from where he had waited for her, a pair of sparrows under his claws; she can see the joy in his face, the way it lights him up from the inside so wonderfully-

Suddenly she is on the ground, a sharp pain in her shoulder, the notes from her pack fluttering down the street like snowflakes, or perhaps butterflies. "Oh of all the maggot ridden, poison pocked, carrion food," she swears, dropping her pack to retrieve the messages. A black-and-white patched she-cat stops to help, having seen Mira fall. "Thanks," Mira says as she shrugs back on the pack.

"Wait." The she-cat touches Mira's shoulder with her nose. A weak lavender haze settles on Mira's fur, the skin beneath tingling and itching as the scrape knits closed. "It's not much for the pain, but it should stop it from bleeding."

"So far from the core," Mira says in a low growl, anger and fear making her fur prickle as she takes a step away.

The black-and-white she-cat follows, ducking in close with a smile, oblivious to Mira's unease as she continues. "Oh, it's nothing! You're with the vanguard, yes?" Mira can only nod, the vanguard's sigil of three dark clawstrikes plain on her pack for all to see. "Great! I'm Talyia." She pauses, looks up and down the street as if most of the Svans that lived there hadn't moved closer to the core seasons ago. Talyia brings herself closer -so close Mira freezes- and drops her voice into a stage whisper, "I'm Umi's mage." With that, Talyia steps back out of Mira's space, looking all so much like an apprentice that eagerly awaits praise.

Mira ducks her head as a salute, desperate now to continue on her route. How much time has she lost already? But Talyia blocks her again, tapping her tail on Mira's head. "You must have been in Eradon for a while now, yes? The vanguard arrived…" She taps her tail against Mira's head as she thinks.

"Seven seasons," Mira says flatly.

Talyia's eyes light up as she nods emphatically. "Yes, you will do wonderfully. Come." Mira bites back a growl and limps after the patched she-cat. With Umi here, Talyia is now the singular authority of the entire city. Mira can do nothing but follow; all Talyia's words, however crazy, have the weight of the king's.

_Airheaded lunatic, _Mira thinks to herself, watching Talyia prance ahead, humming some tune. _And magic? _Even as a high mage, there was hardly a drop of magic this far from the Core. Without the Rose, only the supreme willpower and strength of the Core allows for some magic to remain in the heart of their shrinking borders.

As if she is sensing Mira's disbelief, Talyia's paws flash purple as she gives a triumphant yowl, bouncing off walls and crossing great lengths in leaps, leaving Mira to limp along behind, following the lavender pawprints in her wake.


End file.
